A moment of reckless madness in Coronation Street is leading to some very uncomfortable consequences for Bernie Winter-Alahan (Jane Hazlegrove).

In the midst of her grief over the tragic death of her son-in-law Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), coming so close after her son Paul (Peter Ash) died of MND, Bernie went out and got extremely drunk. She ended up in a hotel room with a man called Mal (Tim Treloar).

Though Mal was a stranger to Bernie, viewers had already seen him march into Roy Cropper (David Neilson)’s cafe, accuse Roy of trying to steal his wife and then thump him. Mal’s wife had been writing to Roy, who of course had no idea she was married.

So Mal had headed to the hotel to drown his own sorrows over his wife leaving him. He and Bernie bonded as they had a drink together and then took the party back to his room. There, Mal tried to kiss her but Bernie firmly reminded him she was happily married.

Bernie guiltily returned home to Dev (Jimmi Harkishin), but was horrified to find that Roy had employed Mal to fix the electrics at the cafe, meaning he’d be around her workplace a lot of the time.

Mal reassured her that he would leave her alone and he’d soon be gone anyway, but that isn’t proving to be the case.

In fact Mal is showing every sign of trying to win Bernie round. He’s even been getting into crystals and angel cards, trying to show Bernie that he shares her interests.

The fact that he isn’t getting the message that she’s not interested is demonstrated in an unnerving situation where Mal invites her up to Roy’s flat for some alone time.

When Dev and Asha (Tanisha Gorey) go away for a few days of father and daughter time, and Roy leaves Bernie alone at the cafe while he goes to the bank, Mal’s behaviour escalates. He locks the cafe door and confesses that he has feelings for Bernie. Again she turns him down, but his behaviour then becomes threatening and she’s terrified.

‘She’s really quite frightened, and she’s been on the end of an aggressive, violent man a lot,’ Jane Hazlegrove told us. ‘So this is absolutely terrifying, she’s in deep now. It is really dangerous.’

When she finds that someone has cut her head out of her wedding picture, she’s sure it must have been Mal, and she’s scared to be at home alone.

The following day she shows Mal the defaced photograph and accuses him of breaking into her house. He denies it but she threatens to report him to the police if he doesn’t leave Weatherfield.

Meanwhile, as far as Roy is concerned Mal is just a nice man who’s down on his luck, so when Tracy (Kate Ford) tells him that Ken (William Roache) is looking for a good electrician, Roy is happy to recommend Mal.

He’s puzzled when Bernie steps in and warns Tracy to steer clear of Mal – and tells Roy he shouldn’t be recommending him as he doesn’t really know anything about him.