Coronation Street viewers were left stunned after recognising the actress playing prison guard Mandy, who was taken hostage by Matty in tense scenes this week
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 shocking return to the cobbles, eight years after his last appearance. Fans will remember that Rob is serving time for the murder of Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan) back in 2014.
However, with his sister Carla Connor (Alison King) in need of 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 (January 13), 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.
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, reports the Mirror.
On the social media platform X, fans were quick to spot that the actress is none other than Rebecca Atkinson, who is best known for her iconic role as Karen Maguire in Channel 4’s hit series Shameless from 2004 to 2013. One fan couldn’t contain their excitement, posting: “It’s karen maguire from shameless!”
Another chimed in with a sense of relief: “I was going crazy trying to remember where i knew her from!”.
A third shared their immediate recognition: “I recognised the prison officer/guard straight away. Loved her when she played Karen in Shameless.”
Meanwhile, another eagle-eyed viewer had been piecing together the clues: “I’ve been staring at this since we got the spoilers and convinced it was!”.
Starting on Shameless at just 19, Rebecca quickly became a fan favourite, entangled in some of the show’s most talked-about storylines, including scandalous affairs and running the infamous Jockey pub.