Earlier this week, Catherine Tyldesley teased what was coming up for her character in ‘Coronation Street’ and it’s now time to hear from Samia Longchambon, who plays Eva Price’s love rival Maria Connor.
Next week’s episode will see Eva discover that her boyfriend Aidan Connor has been having an affair with her pal, and it’s safe to say that she’s not exactly going to take the news lightly.
But while Catherine made it clear that Aidan is going to be on receiving end of some unpleasant revenge, what does the future hold for Maria?
HuffPost UK sat down with Samia to find out…
First up, she thinks Maria is a “massive fool”
As Samia pointed out, Maria has been ‘the other woman’ before, and it didn’t exactly end well then either.
“I feel like banging her head against a wall,” she said. “When I read the scripts, it was so frustrating because I’m like, ‘she should’ve learned by now’.
“She should’ve learned about 16 years ago when Tyrone cheated on her with Fiz! But yeah, she does think that Aidan is going to dump Eva, because he keeps telling her he’s going to, but there’s always a reason why he doesn’t.
“To Maria, it seems like a valid reason at the time.”
Obviously, Eva’s pregnancy bombshell is not ideal
“That’s a complete game-changer, because I think she realises in that moment that he has been stringing her along,” she said, when asked about Eva’s baby news. “And also, when she finds out that Eva is pregnant, Aidan runs out to her outside and she says, ’This is it now, you need to sort your head out.
“’I’ve watched Liam grow up without a dad and I wouldn’t wish that on any child so I’m done’.
“So that is where her head’s at when she finds out, so that is a bit of closure of her in a way.”
Maria is actually in love with Aidan
“It’s not just a lust thing,” Samia said. “Because she’s got that history with Aidan as well because he’s the cousin of Liam which you sort of forget about.”
And Samia (unsurprisingly) feels no sympathy for him
Like her co-star, Samia isn’t shedding a tear for Shayne Ward’s character. Quite categorically, she said: “I don’t feel sympathy for Aidan, he’s a baddie isn’t he, he’s stringing us both along.”
She’s got a lot of time for a possible David Platt romance...
For months, fans have been calling for Maria to get together with her good pal, David - and Samia’s now admitted that she’d love to see it happen too.
“I think Maria and David should get it together. I keep saying that to Jack [P Shepherd],” she laughed. “He’s not opposed to it. Jack rarely gets excited about stuff. I’m halfway there, he’ll be up for it.
“I love working with Jack as well. I think in some ways, they’re quite similar in that they’ve both had their husband/wife murdered, they’ve both got kids, they’ve both worked in the salon all these years and grown up together and know each other inside out.
“But in a way I quite like playing that they are such good friends that you want them to get together and they won’t so it’s quite nice playing it like that.”
...But admits Maria should probably be alone for a while
“She needs to start going to church and just redeem herself and have a little break, throw herself into her hairdressing for a while!” she said, before revealing what her advice for Maria would be: “Just lay off the guys and just concentrate on being a mum and being a good friend.
“At the moment she’s being a really good friend to Michelle [Connor] because she’s been through a lot.
“[I’d tell her to] just concentrate on other things and not go looking for love so much, because it’ll happen if it’s gonna happen.”
Catch up on all the latest soap news and spoilers here.