Corrie Newcomer Helen Lederer's Rival Soap Role Exposed Amid Ken Barlow Fling

Absolutely Fabulous star Helen Lederer has joined the cast of Coronation Street as a new potential beau for Ken Barlow, but fans may not know she already has some soap experience

Now that she’s a member of the Coronation Street ensemble on ITV, Helen Lederer is stirring things up.

Lederer, 69, who plays Elspeth in the serial opera, debuted last week as a possible love interest for veteran Corrie cast member Ken Barlow. Ken took Steve to a cocktail speed dating event with former son-in-law Steve McDonald, which is how the two originally got together.

A strange woman from across the bar buys Steve and Ken a couple of beers while they are enjoying the ambiance of the event at Chariot Square. When the two realize Elspeth paid for the drinks, Ken and Elspeth’s romance officially starts.

As the couple’s relationship blossoms, lonely Ken is left alone with the new woman while Steve is left to his own ways and chooses to return home. Is she, however, everything she seems to be?

Elspeth’s new role in the soap opera has been well received by viewers, who applauded Absolutely Fabulous star Helen for what appears to be her soap debut. Nevertheless, many fans might be unaware that Lederer has prior soap opera expertise from a 2013 spell on a competing program.

Helen made her television debut as midwife Miriam Andrews on the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks when she was sixty years old. However, because of Miriam’s difficult past, her time on the program was brief. The so-called Gloved Hand Killer, who was subsequently identified as Sophie Austin’s Lindsey Butterfield, killed her.

Helen was involved in several storylines during her brief tenure on the program, one of which being the ‘baby swap,’ in which she unintentionally exchanged Dee Dee Hutchinson with Rose Lomax when she was born in 2013. In 2015, Miriam reappeared on the show when Tony Hutchinson and Diane O’Connor pursued her to find out why she had switched the babies.

Before being killed off in May 2015, Lederer only had an appearance in eight episodes of the Channel 4 soap opera overall. Helen acknowledged that she had a great experience on the set even though she decided not to return to the show.

“It’s an amazing show to watch,” she admitted in a Digital Spy interview at the time. “When I’m touring now and I stop off at a service station, loads of younger people go, ‘Oh my god, you’re the lady who did the baby swap’; I can’t believe so many people watch it.”

After announcing Helen’s arrival on the show in a special tweet, ITV executives expressed their excitement at landing Helen for her new role. Producers exclaimed, “Silver Fox Ken Barlow will prove he still has what it takes to woo the ladies when he catches the eye of Elspeth, played by Helen!” adding that Helen will only be a guest appearance in the program.