Corrie's Paula Wilcox has 'fingers crossed' for permanent role

Paula Wilcox is keeping her "fingers crossed" for a permanent \'Coronation Street\' role.

The 70-year-old actress recently made her return to the cobbles as Elaine Jones - the first wife of abusive Geoff Metcalfe (Ian Bartholomew) - and while she\'s signed on in a guest role, she\'d love to stick around in the future.

When asked if she would consider something "more permanent", she told TV Times magazine: "I\'m shooting something else in September.

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"But I do think this story could run and run, so we\'ll see. I\'ll keep my fingers crossed."

Paula previously appeared on the cobbles back in 1969 as Ray Langton\'s (Neville Buswell) sister Janice.

Four decades later, she has made her return and admitted that while a lot has changed, much of the soap is still familiar.

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She explained: "It\'s so different and yet so much the same. There are lots of really good actors, but we\'re at MediaCityUK now in this brand-new studio.

"Back in 1969, I was playing a character who was really rude to everybody, particularly Elsie Tanner.

"A friend of my mother\'s said to me, \'Oh, Paula, I\'m so glad you told that Elsie Tanner where to get off, cos she\'s really getting above herself.\'

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"It was like I wasn\'t this girl who she\'d known since I was eight. She totally believed I\'d walked through the television screen and changed personalities."

The soap star was drawn to a \'Corrie\' comeback playing newcomer Elaine - who is also the biological mother of Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) - after seeing "enough" of the script to give her a feel for the coercive control storyline between Geoff and Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King).

She added: "I saw a bit of the script, enough to let me know that this was something serious that I fancied getting my teeth into."