Coronation Street legend Brooke Vincent reveals chances of Sophie Webster return - and what she could be doing now

Brooke Vincent has addressed a potential return to Coronation Street.

The star played Sophie Webster in the ITV soap for 15 years between 2004 and 2019 before she left to take maternity leave, never returning to the role. The character chose to depart the cobbles to go travelling, growing restless with her position as the manager of Speed Daal.

Her trip was funded by inheritance money that her aunt Debbie Webster (Sue Devaney) bestowed from a relative's will.

Since her exit, Vincent has gone on to join the cast of Hollyoaks as high school teacher Abigail Matthews. Originally introduced as a councillor for Dee Dee Hutchinson (Chloe Atkinson), enigmatic Abigail settled in the village and found a home with Cindy Cunningham (Steph Waring).

In sickening scenes that aired last week, a child grooming plot began, with a comment made to Dee Dee about a sexually suggestive photograph she'd sent her boyfriend. The E4 soap is exploring grooming from a place of institutional authority.

Speaking to Radio Times about her return to soapland at the Inside Soap Awards, Vincent said: "I've obviously grown up knowing how it works and what's expected and things like that. So for me, it was an amazing opportunity, and I've just absolutely loved it.

"I'm obviously in a different time in my life now, I'm a mum, and it's fab. It's lovely to be in work."

On her ongoing storyline, she added: "I think Hollyoaks have really done well with the lines that they've given me to showcase the complexity of it and of the relationships and how people can prey on the vulnerable and things like that.

"It showcases what can happen [in a situation like Dee Dee's], and people get under a certain false sense of security in that they think someone with bad intentions looks a certain way or acts a certain way, and it's not always the case."

But how about a return to Weatherfield? Could Corrie be calling when Abigail's inevitable downfall plays out in Chester?

"I don't know. I'm not sure," Vincent told Radio Times.

"I think, obviously, at the minute, it's you know, it's British television, and I think you know, Hollyoaks is as iconic as Corrie, and I think it's the characters that obviously I miss."

The actress added: "I miss Sophie Webster, but at the minute I'm having a ball playing Abigail."

And as for what Sophie is up to, Vincent reckons she's "having a ball" travelling. This certainly leaves a multitude of options for a potential return storyline!

Hollyoaks is available to watch on Channel 4 catch-up and airs Monday to Wednesday, from 7pm on E4. Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1, or can be streamed from 7am on ITVX.

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Authors

Michael Adams is the Soaps Editor at Radio Times, covering all of the hot gossip and spoilers from Weatherfield to Walford, Emmerdale to Hollyoaks and everywhere in-between. He joined the team from Metro, where he spent two years as a Soaps Reporter and previously worked on the sets of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.