Coronation Street boss picks trio of rival soap characters he wants to steal

\'Coronation Street\' boss Iain MacLeod would love to see Cain Dingle on the cobbles.

The ITV soap\'s producer has opened up about which characters he\'s steal from other shows for a brief appearance, and he thinks Jeff Hordley\'s \'Emmerdale\' alter ego would make a great foil for bad guy Gary Windass (Mikey North).

He told RadioTimes.com: "The character with the most enduring popularity, no matter what they do or who they do it to, is Cain Dingle. Seeing Corrie\'s tough guy Gary Windass go up against Cain would be interesting.

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"There are characters across all the shows that I love. I love Sienna Blake in Hollyoaks, Anna Passey is a fantastic actor and has drawn this incredibly complex character that I had some hand at steering at various times.

"Sienna could start a crisis in an empty room - she was very useful story-wise because you could have her do anything, so I think seeing her step off the Weatherfield Wayfarer bus and have her cause some kind of chaos would be good fun."

Iain - who worked on \'Hollyoaks\' before his \'Emmerdale\' and \'Corrie\' stints - also decided to pick an \'EastEnders\' icon to round off his trio of steals, and he made a very obvious choice for his hyperthetical Albert Square acquisition.

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He added: "Who would turn down Phil Mitchell? Steve McFadden is an incredibly good, and often underrated, actor.

"He\'s done some really brilliant, hard-hitting serious stuff but is also another alpha male who would threaten to upset the applecart if he came to the cobbles."

All three characters are somewhat volatile, and Iain explained the importance of these people on a soap.

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He said: "I like people who are sort of damaged but ultimately complicated and interesting. That\'s the business of drama, I suppose."