{"id":95701,"date":"2025-10-24T15:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/95701\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:20:08","slug":"former-eastenders-villain-actor-to-join-corrie-in-major-new-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/95701\/","title":{"rendered":"Former EastEnders villain actor to join Corrie in major new role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A familiar face to soap fans will soon be arriving on the Coronation Street cobbles, as Irish actor Aidan O&#8217;Callaghan takes on a new role.<\/p>\n<p>The 36-year-old first hit soapland in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/emmerdale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Emmerdale<\/a> guest role in 2018. Amid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/emmerdale\/emmerdale-greatest-ever-robert-sugden-moments-ryan-hawley-comment\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a worrying time for Robert Sugden&#8217;s (Ryan Hawley) relationship<\/a> with Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller), Bernice Blackstock (Samantha Giles) thought she would play matchmaker.<\/p>\n<p>After introducing Robert to O&#8217;Callaghan&#8217;s character Mike in a gay bar, the two hit it off following some encouragement from Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick).<\/p>\n<p>However, Robert&#8217;s guilt got the better of him and he decided against pursuing anything further.<\/p>\n<p>Aidan then had a more regular capacity in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EastEnders<\/a> four years later. He played Lewis Butler, the dashing new bar manager of The Prince Albert.<\/p>\n<p>He initially struck up a friendship with Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden) \u2013 whose mum Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) had taken him on at the boozer \u2013 and something more romantic began to develop. However, Ben wasn&#8217;t single, and turned down Lewis&#8217;s advances after a night drinking.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/380223-bef4110.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden), Lewis Butler (Aidan O'Callaghan) and Callum Highway (Tony Clay) in a bar in EastEnders\" data-item-name=\"Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden), Lewis Butler (Aidan O'Callaghan) and Callum Highway (Tony Clay) in a bar in EastEnders\" title=\"380223,EastEnders - April - June 2022,6466,EastEnders - April - June 2022 - 6466\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1 \/ 0.6661290322580645;object-fit:contain\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"466.2903225806452\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Aidan played vile Lewis in EastEnders. BBC\u00a0BBC\/Jack Barnes\/Kieron McCarron<\/p>\n<p>In harrowing scenes, Lewis became infuriated and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/eastenders-spoilers-ben-revenge-lewis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">refused to let Ben leave<\/a>, before raping him.<\/p>\n<p>The truth came out and Kathy ordered him out of Walford, though the Mitchell clan had far grander plans for the abuser. He was kidnapped and bundled into a car, but managed to evade patriarch Phil&#8217;s (Steve McFadden) grasp and get hold of his gun.<\/p>\n<p>He then aimed the pistol at Phil and Sam (Kim Medcalf), and following a scuffle, Ben got hold of the weapon. After forcing a confession out of Lewis, he let him go \u2013 but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/eastenders-reveals-outcome-mitchell-revenge-rapist-lewis-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">decided to report him to authorities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A year later, despite not facing justice for his crime, Ben heard that Lewis had been charged with sexual assault on another man.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a return to the genre is on the cards for O&#8217;Callaghan, as his Spotlight CV confirms that he&#8217;s set to play newcomer Alan in two episodes of Corrie.<\/p>\n<p>As we know, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/coronation-street\/coronation-street-new-rovers-owners-shameless-eastenders-stars-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an Irish family are soon to take over the Rovers Return<\/a>, with former Shameless actors Aaron McCusker and Pauline McLynn playing landlord Ben and his mother Maggie.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761319208_301_corrie-driscoll-price-5a6b865.jpg\" alt=\"Pauline McLynn, Aaron McCusker and Catherine Tyldesley as Maggie, Ben and Eva in Coronation Street outside the Rovers\" data-item-name=\"Pauline McLynn, Aaron McCusker and Catherine Tyldesley as Maggie, Ben and Eva in Coronation Street outside the Rovers\" title=\"corrie-driscoll-price\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1 \/ 0.6666666666666666;object-fit:contain\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"466.66666666666663\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pauline McLynn, Aaron McCusker and Catherine Tyldesley as Maggie, Ben and Eva in Coronation Street outside the Rovers.\u00a0ITV<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ll be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/coronation-street\/coronation-street-catherine-tyldesley-return-before-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joined by returning favourite Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley)<\/a>, her daughter Susie (Aurora Bradshaw) and his sons Will (Lucas Hodgson-Wale) and Ollie (Raphael Akuwudike) \u2013 who first appeared earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<p>In a chat with <a href=\"http:\/\/radiotimes.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RadioTimes.com<\/a>, Pauline warned viewers to &#8220;put on your seatbelt&#8221;, as Maggie is &#8220;fierce, formidable&#8221; and &#8220;is never wrong&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that people, bit by bit, realise that she really can be very caustic and go too far with some of the put-downs she has for people. I don&#8217;t know how much she learns from her mistakes, we are yet to find out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Consider us intrigued!<\/p>\n<p>But who is Aidan&#8217;s character Alan, and what does his arrival mean for the Driscolls?<\/p>\n<p>One avid viewer on X spotted that he seemed to be one of the faces in a retro snap of the family that is set to be on display in the living quarters of the Rovers.<\/p>\n<p>Could it be that Alan is Maggie&#8217;s husband, and we&#8217;re about to flashback to Ben&#8217;s childhood?<\/p>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time Corrie has delved into the history of new faces, with Kit Green&#8217;s (Jacob Roberts) childhood explored in a special episode earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<p>Coronation Street has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>Visit our dedicated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/coronation-street\" data-outlook-id=\"047ec72f-5183-4919-acf8-a15c74c8146a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coronation Street<\/a> page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers.<\/p>\n<p>Add Coronation Street to your watchlist on the <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/download-the-app\/?af_xp=custom&amp;pid=website&amp;c=editorial_content&amp;is_retargeting=true&amp;af_reengagement_window=30d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/download-the-app\/?af_xp=custom&amp;pid=website&amp;c=editorial_content&amp;is_retargeting=true&amp;af_reengagement_window=30d\" data-outlook-id=\"ab8a6c09-8dcc-4b3e-8aae-c53dc08355da\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Radio Times: What to Watch app<\/a> \u2013 download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"m_-8929316776554396108paragraph\">Check out more of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0CQWGoiSAYvZvTD1dZ4eAs\">Soaps<\/a> coverage or visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32C9VRDQ0MNT5CInEGyMAm\">TV Guide<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2_j9koCLWjp1srEzK9td3T\">Streaming Guide<\/a>to find out what&#8217;s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3wbAcSTIv74D2RLzOpEtYE\">The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A familiar face to soap fans will soon be arriving on the Coronation Street cobbles, as Irish actor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-95701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}