Coronation Street’s Catherine Tyldesley has spoken about her big return as Eva Price on the ITV soap, confessing she rejected previous comeback offers until finally agreeing
21:00, 19 Oct 2025Updated 21:23, 19 Oct 2025
Coronation Street’s Catherine Tyldesley has spoken about her big return as Eva Price (Image: ITV)
Eva Price actress Catherine Tyldesley has confessed she’d been asked more than once to return to Coronation Street, before finally agreeing this year.
The actress reprises her role very soon, seven years after her emotional exit. Eva left Weatherfield behind with her baby daughter Susie, but now she’s back with some new faces. Joined by husband Ben Driscoll, mother-in-law “from hell” Maggie and Ben’s two sons, as well as Susie, Weatherfield is about to see plenty of drama and some “classic” soap scenes.
But Catherine has confessed she had been asked to head back previously, adding now was “the right time”. Speaking to The Mirror, she said: “I really meant what I said when I left, that I would love to come back, cos Eva is so much fun to play. And it felt really serendipitous I suppose.
“I was in Malta, filming, and my agent said, ‘Kate would like to speak to you about Corrie’, and I assumed it was someone’s funeral. I thought ‘Somebody’s dying, they want me to rock up.’
“I remember my agent said ‘I don’t really know what to expect, let’s just keep a poker face, let’s hear her out, let’s see what happens.’ We were on a zoom and Kate said ‘Would you like to be landlady?’ and I went ‘Aaagh!!’ My agent was like that, ‘Nice one.’ I was just really shocked, really shocked.
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Eva Price actress Catherine Tyldesley has confessed she’d been asked more than once to return to Coronation Street(Image: ITV)
“It’s an absolute dream, I remember watching the show as a kid, thinking, ‘God, I’d kill to be landlady one day, how cool would that be?’”
On her comeback working now where it didn’t before, she explained: “I felt like the universe had combined things at the time. I remember [my husband] Tom saying to me, ‘God, I hope your next job’s in Manchester, Cath’ and then we got this call. I’ve been asked before to come back and I always made a point of emailing the producers because it genuinely didn’t work in the past because I had other projects and I was like ‘Actually, this could work.’
“So it all came around at the right time, on a personal and professional level it felt right and I’m so thrilled to be back, it’s just been gorgeous.” Catherine also detailed some of what has gone on in Eva’s life in her years away from the Cobbles.
Catherine shared: “When I was asked to come back, I asked Kate what Eva had been though over the years – has she had a good time, a bad time? – and it was really refreshing actually cos she was like ‘She’s had a lovely time, in general, and she’s met this wonderful guy, Ben, and they’re deeply in love and they’ve got this blended family and it’s been really nice’.
“I assumed when I was asked to come back, I thought ‘Oh gosh, is she going to have loads of baggage and trauma’ but no, that’s not the case. There are obviously things that have happened in her past that we might see further down the line but in general, she’s been having a lovely time.”
The actress reprises her role very soon, seven years after her emotional exit(Image: ITV)
Catherine confessed one of the first cast members to find out amid the rumours was her good friend Jodie Prenger, who plays Glenda Shuttleworth on the ITV soap. She told us: “Well, I was sworn to secrecy. That was nice and awkward because rumours, as they always do, started to leak out.
“Jodie, who’s a very dear friend of mine and my writing partner, kept dropping hints – ‘Would you ever go back to Corrie?’ She’d clearly heard rumours. In my head, I’m thinking, ‘I’m gonna be your boss in a few weeks’ time.’
“So I didn’t tell them for a long time but they were thrilled. Again, my family have really missed me on a personal level because much of my work has been in a different city or abroad, so everyone was really happy.”
On what we can expect from Eva this time around, she added: “She’s a little bit older and wiser – we think, a tiny bit. But it’s also been lovely to see her be a mum now, to not just Susie but to the rest of the family, to his boys.”
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