Coronation Street fans were left stunned after discovering the identity of the actress playing prison guard Mandy in the soap.
Recently, Rob Donovan (Marc Baylis) made a surprising return to the cobbles, eight years after his last appearance on the ITV programme.
Fans will recall that Rob is serving time for the murder of Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan) back in 2014. However, with his sister Carla Connor (Alison King) needing a kidney transplant, his son Bobby (Jack Carroll) decided to step in.
Last week, he visited Rob to reveal the situation – and although initially resistant, Rob eventually had a change of heart. In Monday’s episode, Bobby returned to the prison to convince Rob to get tested as a potential donor.
But things took a shocking turn when fellow inmate Matty (Seamus McGoff), who is in prison for stabbing and killing his own brother Mason (Luca Toolan) last week, pulled out a knife and took prison guard Mandy hostage reports the Mirror.
The situation escalated when Rob intervened, leading to Matty threatening Bobby’s life. Both Mandy and Rob tried to defuse the situation, and as tensions rose, Rob managed to pin Matty against the wall until staff could intervene.
Viewers were on the edge of their seats with the intense prison scenes, but some eagle-eyed fans were quick to spot a familiar face portraying Mandy.
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Twitter was abuzz with the news that Rebecca Atkinson, best remembered for her role as Karen Maguire on the hit Channel 4 series Shameless from 2004 to 2013, had fans in a frenzy.
One admirer posted: “It’s karen maguire from shameless! ” while another commented: “I was going crazy trying to remember where i knew her from!”
Another added, “I recognised the prison officer/guard straight away. Loved her when she played Karen in Shameless.” Yet another fan noted: “I’ve been staring at this since we got the spoilers and convinced it was!”
Marking her start on Shameless at just 19, Rebecca secured her spot as a mainstay of the BAFTA-winning series, delving into high-profile storylines including torrid romances and running the infamous Jockey pub.
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