When a reporter from the Weatherfield Gazette walked into the Rovers Return to interview mayoral candidate Sally Metcalfe in last night’s Corrie, there was a collective gasp among viewers.
It couldn’t be, could it? Not Michelle Keegan – whose character Tina McIntyre was bludgeoned to death by Rob Donovan back in 2014?
We’ve witnessed some pretty bonkers storylines in soapland over the years, but that would really take the biscuit.
It wasn’t, of course – the reporter was actually played by former Hollyoaks actress Saira Choudhry – but viewers flocked to social media to pass comment on the spooky lookalike.
“Genuinely thought Tina had just come back from the dead! How much does she look like Michelle Keegan?!” wrote one bemused fan.
“Thought Tina (Michelle Keegan) had come back to life there for a split second,” tweeted another.
And a third viewer exclaimed: “Anyone else spotted the Tina look-a-like in Corrie? It’s unreal!”
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Even if Corrie producers had wanted to bring Tina back from the grave, they probably would’ve had their work cut out, as Michelle Keegan is pretty busy doing other stuff these days.
Since leaving the ITV soap, the 30-year-old has been inundated with work, appearing in BBC dramas Ordinary Lies and Our Girl, and starring as Tina Dean in the Bobby Moore biopic Tina and Bobby – a role that earned her critical acclaim.
On top of all that, she has to find time to see her hubby, former TOWIE star Mark Wright, 30, who’s working in the US as a TV correspondent for entertainment series Extra.
Although, in a recent interview, she insisted that the long-distance thing isn’t a problem for the couple.
“Everything is fine with us,” she told the Daily Star. “We have separate careers. Why is it a bad thing?”
Read more: Michelle Keegan reveals the big ‘no-no’ in her marriage
As for Saira Choudhray, who played Anita Roy in Hollyoaks from 2008-2011, she’ll be hoping for more appearances in Corrie, as it was the Weatherfield soap that first inspired her to become an actress.
“When I was eight, I was watching Coronation Street and it suddenly dawned on me that I wanted to be an actor,” she said in a recent interview with DesiBlitz. “I remember telling my dad.”
Well, if the producers don’t offer her any more work, she can always start a new career as a Michelle Keegan lookalike…