Coronation Street star Pauline McLynn has responded to last night’s shocking twist which saw her character, Rovers Return landlady Maggie Driscoll, exposed as a killer.

On Monday’s episode (8 December) viewers saw a flashback explaining what happened to Maggie’s husband Alan (Aidan O’Callaghan) before she arrived in Weatherfield.

Maggie and Alan were revealed to have had a troubled marriage, which escalated one night when the pair had an argument on the stairs of their home.

During the heated exchange, Maggie pushed her husband down the stairs leaving him for dead, an incident which was witnessed by the couple’s son Finlay.

Speaking about her character’s dark past coming to light, McLynn said she’s not worried about becoming the cobbles’ new villain.

“Even if people think there’s terrible villainy afoot, we all love a villain, don’t we?” she told The Mirror.

She added: “As long as the audience is entertained by what she’s up to, I don’t mind whether they like her or not, as long as they want to know what happens next.”

McLynn also shared that she’d spoken to Tracy McDonald actor Kate Ford, who knows a thing or two about soap murder.

“I said [to Ford] ‘there’s a flashback for me and there’s a bit of pushing at the top of the stairs and somebody falls down them and dies,'” McLynn explained.

“She said ‘yeah, well, I’ve killed three times and you know what? You just have to get on with things.’ So that’s where I am!”

McLynn went on to say that she does hope people will understand her character, though she doesn’t expect Maggie to face any serious consequences.

“Hopefully some people will like Maggie,” McLynn said. “The flashback is just sad really. It was an accident, not murder. That’s what I think anyway.

“It is very much open to interpretation, although I don’t think Coronation Street intends a full murder trial or anything like that. Though people change their minds all the time, so who knows!”