Coronation Street's Sinead Osbourne (Katie McGlynn) is bravely facing up to her terminal cancer diagnosis, but when she visited a hospice this week, some viewers may have been slightly distracted as they recognised Sheila, the kindly care worker who showed Sinead and husband Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard) around.

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The motorbike-loving medic is played by Helen Sheals, familiar to Downton Abbey fans as village post mistress Mrs Wigan. The recurring character appeared in a handful of episodes throughout the period hit’s six-year run, including the very first one back in 2010 – although she doesn’t pop up in the current big-screen version.

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Who else did Helen Sheals play in Coronation Street?

It’s also not the first time the actress has cropped up in Coronation Street: in 2009 she briefly played Lilly Richardson, mother of Sophie Webster’s teenage sweetheart Ben Richardson.

The sports-mad schoolboy is best remembered for making an inappropriate move on best mate Ryan Connor’s mum, Michelle, which understandably cut short his time as the family lodger…

Sheals has notched up numerous TV credits since the mid-1990s in the likes of Doctors, Casualty, Holby City, Silent Witness, Last Tango in Halifax, defunct C4 soap Brookside and The Hello Girls opposite EastEnders favourite Letitia Dean during one of her hiatuses from Walford.

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