https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/cor...rooming-story/

Coronation Street introduced Eva Price and her new family members this week, and wasted no time in launching the soap's newest dark storyline: teenager Will Driscoll is being groomed by his school teacher and athletics coach Megan.

Megan, who is portrayed by Beth Nixon, will soon get a job at Weatherfield High and move to be closer to Will. At the tender age of 15, Will is unaware that he is being groomed, and his family don't know about his relationship with Megan.

As a fellow teacher, Megan will naturally get scenes with Daniel Osbourne. However, it's also been revealed that she will start something of a relationship with him, with Nixon teasing that her character has an ulterior motive for doing so.

"She's calculated with it because, one, it's a good cover story. But two, she's also able to make Will jealous and further manipulate him, further deepening his obsession," the actor stated. "But I think that over time, she does develop some kind of feelings for Daniel.

"She does get emotionally involved with him, and it's not just a cover like she's telling Will. She's getting herself into more of a mess because if she does eventually develop feelings for Daniel, she can't then leave Will because it's all going to come out.

"She needs to silence him, so she's kind of spinning all these plates and having to juggle all these different things, which adds to her stress. She's like a duck - calm, cool, collected on the surface, but underneath she is going crazy."

The duality is a feature of Megan's personality, with Nixon explaining that her character's charismatic demeanour belies the insecurity that is bubbling underneath the surface, with her doubts resulting in narcissism.

"She's a narcissist. Obviously, because Will's 15, he thinks she's the best thing since sliced bread," said the actor. "He thinks she's gorgeous [and] funny. Obviously, she has money because she has a job, so she spoils him.

"And he knows that if he were to tell his friends, they would probably either think that's wrong or they would think he's lucky. She adores being adored. That's her main drive in life. Because without external adoration, she will crumble.

"She's very insecure and probably hates herself. So having that absolute adoration, being Will's absolute world, that's what she sees in him. She doesn't necessarily see his positive traits for who he is as a person, but she sees how he makes her feel.

"Will is the perfect target. He's been uprooted from his life in Hull; his birth mum's not around. So he's probably not got the most stable environment. His family are distracted with the pub and everything going on there. So she has found the perfect victim in Will."

To maintain the deceit, Megan will have to worm her way into Will's family in order to get them on her side. While Eva and Maggie won't suspect anything, somebody begins to see through the mask.

"They think she's good for Will [and is] a brilliant mentor, so no one is suspecting anything at the moment," said Nixon. "But we will see Lauren [Bolton] become suspicious because Lauren has obviously experienced something very similar to what Will's going through.

"She knows what to look for; she knows the signs and she spots them on the street. So Megan changes tack and decides to use Daniel as the cover-up. We get to sort of uncover how truly vile she can be. She will stop at nothing to come out on top and survive."

While Nixon admitted that Megan possesses some particularly worrying traits, the star did explain that there is far more going on under the surface, and that it was her job as an actor to bring that out to viewers.

"As an actor, I obviously need to find that humanity in her and make her a rounded character," she said. "She's not one-dimensional. She's not just this evil person. She has all these other things going on [and] life experiences which have led her up to this point.

"The audience doesn't know, the other characters don't know, but she knows. So, there are all these things I've decided in my preparation. She's very insecure. She's desperate to be loved; she's desperate to be adored.

"Her reasons for that will eventually be uncovered, and we'll dig deeper and find out more about her. But she's a flawed person [and] really complex. As an actor you've got to delve deep and find a reason for why a person, [or] 'villain', behaves in that way."

With the storyline set to take shape in the coming weeks, fans have questioned if Will could eventually receive support from Tim Metcalfe, who recently shared that something similar had happened to them in the past.