Coronation Street star Sally Ann Matthews has said she loves having a good old-fashioned mystery of a storyline that keeps the audience guessing.

The actress has recently returned to her role as Jenny Bradley in the soap, which she originally played from 1986 to 1991, and said that she was pleased a lot of the circumstances of Jenny coming back to Weatherfield had been kept under wraps.

She said: “It’s been better than I ever hoped it could be.

Coronation Street
Jenny (Sally Ann Matthews) is growing too fond of Jack (ITV)

“A story that has been given five months to grow and develop is a real privilege because these days audiences want a quick fix of a story, so to be given one that has had time to play out is a real joy and I’m so grateful for the opportunity.”

Sally added that she loved how surprising her storyline was – that she was planning on abducting Jack and will now reveal some trauma about a child in her past – when fans would have expected her to fall back into a plot about Rita Tanner.

She said: “They’d been talking about me coming back for four years and this was really not on my radar at all.

“I’m finding it very interesting that everyone has a theory. In a time when you can find out the answer to everything immediately, to have the audience engaging and putting their own ideas forward is really exciting.”

Coronation Street
Sally Ann Matthews plays Jenny Bradley in Coronation Street (ITV)

She went on that the secret storyline is safe with her: “I don’t want to tell people because I’ve worked my backside off for five months and there’s a brilliant episode where everything is explained.

“You should be switching on the telly to be told a story and switching off again. You shouldn’t be switching on to watch a story that you already know.

“You’ve bothered to care and watch and invest in a storyline, you want to see what happens, whether your theory’s right. You want to pick up the phone to your mates and say, ‘Told you!’.”