CORONATION Street legend Gabrielle Glaister has made a shocking comeback after 22-years – but as an entirely new character.
The actress previously played man-eating cruise ship entertainer Debs Brownlow in 2000 – but now she will be playing a new role as a doppelgänger of Bernie Winter.
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Next week, viewers will see twice as much as Bernie when she meets her face-to-face. ‘twin’ Fern.
After years of being misunderstood for Gabrielle, Bernie star Jane Hazlegrove had the idea for the storyline.
Jonathan Harvey, the legendary Corrie writer, helped her to create the perfect plot for Gabrielle’s return to the cobbles.
Jane said that the pair are so similar, that Coronation Street co-workers stopped Gabrielle in a corridor to talk because they thought it was her.
She said: “I mentioned this idea to Jonathan a while ago. Gabby and myself are frequently mistaken for each others, with people saying that they have seen one in another when it wasn’t the other.
“We have often laughed about it together but then I started thinking it might be fun to have her in the show as Bernie’s secret twin or a doppelganger.
“I was so chuffed when they told me that they had devised this storyline and that Gabby was on board.
“Shortly after I had heard that we were doing the story, I was at the Soap Awards and someone who used to work with Gabby started talking to me thinking I was her.
“The actor was mortified when I pointed out who I was but of course I don’t mind being mistaken for Gabby, it is a huge compliment and secretly I was thinking ‘that’s brilliant, this storyline is going to work so well’.”
Gabrielle added: “Jane and I have been mistaken for each other for years and years .
“Me constantly denying that I was in Casualty, Jane insisting that she wasn’t in Brookside!
“Or people congratulating me on my performance in something I wasn’t in because it was Jane being brilliant.
“A very good friend of mine texted me last week to say he caught a bit of Corrie and thought I was very good. I pointed out that I wasn’t on screen yet!!
“When they approached me with the storyline It seemed like fate! What they’ve written is so clever and I’m having a ball working with Jane.”
The storyline begins on August 26th, with a mix up about a parcel collection.
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Bernie is collecting Joseph’s new school uniform when she is given a parcel for Fern by a shop assistant who mistakes her for the other woman.
Fern comes to the house and demands her parcel. She accuses Bernie of theft. The women are struck at their similarities and Fern offers Bernie a shady way to earn some money the following week.