The guest star of Coronation Street, Kel Allen, has nabbed a new role as Claire’s mother, Kelly Neelan. Viewers may recall the actress of her period as Lulu Lockett, manager of the Tassels strip club, where Bethany Platt worked for a little while.
Kel made five appearances as Lulu back in January 2018, eventually sacking Bethany after Sarah’s mother, Gail’s grandma, and Audrey’s grandma snooped around the club.
Kel obviously made an impression on the Corrie casting department, as she will debut as her new character, Claire, in the next week’s episodes, where Gary Windass will issue a huge threat to her.
When it happens, Claire has sneakily pocketed Gary’s school fees for her daughter Kelly (everyone thinks it’s Rick Neelan paying them, who killed Gary last year). This leaves Gary in a tricky place, so he warns Claire that there would be drastic consequences if Rick were to find out that she kept the money.
Terrified by this, she’s making a swift exit – but something tells us that we’ll see more of Claire in the near future … If you think Kel’s recasting would be odd, it’s not the first time someone has been given two separate roles in a soap. For instance, EastEnder’s favorite Lorraine Stanley played Thelma Bragg in eight episodes back in 2016, before she was brought back as Karen Taylor’s regular series only a year later.