Coronation Street legend joins BBC soap after exit 28 years ago

A Coronation Street legend is ready for a new role almost three decades after leaving the Corrie cobbles. The soap star is ready for a new challenge as she joined a BBC soap.

Denise Black was initially on the long-running ITV soap as Denise Osbourne in Weatherfield. Her character was the former partner of Ken Barlow. She appeared between 1992 and 1997, with her character and Ken sharing son Daniel Osbourne.

After six years full-time, Denise later had two guest stints on the cobbles. The first came 10 years on from her initial exit, with the second coming in 2017.

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She also starred on Emmerdale. Now, however, Denise is set to swap ITV for the BBC after she signed up to play a brand new character in Waterloo Road.

Denise will take on the part of Mo McManus, a character who finds herself caught up in a street showdown with police on the drama series. Her debut appearance comes in episode six of the latest series.

Her role in Emmerdale saw her join the Dingle clan. Her character, Joanie Dingle, first appeared in 2013. She was the reason for Zak and Lisa's divorce and she later tied the knot with Zak.

However, her time in the Dales came to an end after her character's sudden death in 2017 following a heart attack.

Months after her exit, she was back in front of the Corrie cameras. At the time, viewers were left stunned after Denise returned to stop Daniel killing Ken. The desperate scenes saw Denise's character return in desperate circumstances after her son looked like he was about to kill Corrie's longest standing character.

At the time, Ken had a showdown with Daniel after discovering he attacked him, demanding to know why he bashed him over the head with a book.

The pair had a heated argument about the attack as Ken begged his son to let him go free before a knock at the door startled the pair. It turned out to be Denise, who had fled from the family home in 2007, leaving a teenage Daniel to fend for himself.

Speaking at the time about her return to the soap, she said she had been so keen to bond with Rob Mallard - who plays her on screen son - she stayed on the sofa in his home so they could rehearse together.

Denise said: "I had to go back and watch Denise Osbourne from the early 90s which is very strange because that is a long time ago and a different me. It is really hard, I could hardly recognise myself I thought ‘god I am hot!’. What happened?

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