Coronation Street star Samia Longchambon has revealed all on Maria Connor’s reaction to finding out the truth about Gary Windass’ (Mikey North) disappearance.

Gary disappeared without a trace following a row with Maria, who wasn’t pleased about his growing connection with relatively new neighbour Lou Michaelis (Farrell Hegarty).

When he didn’t return home, Maria reckoned that it was simply due to their falling out. ‘She’s really upset that he’s gone but it’s not until he’s been gone too long that she realises something is really wrong and is even more worried,’ admitted series star Samia.

‘Her emotions turn from being upset about the fact that they’ve fallen out to being worried about his safety.’

Samia credits Gary missing Liam’s (Charlie Wrenshall) birthday as the catalyst in her on-screen alter-ego realising that something is afoot.

‘She was obviously worried before where he was because he had been gone a long time and was ignoring her messages and phone calls and thought they would have sorted it out long before that,’ said the actress, ‘but as soon as he misses Liam’s birthday she absolutely has a gut feeling that something isn’t right and thinks something awful might have happened to him.’

Gary, as audiences know, was seen in the hospital in recent scenes. He’s in a coma and fighting for his life.

In upcoming scenes, we’ll see Maria reporting Gary as a missing person to Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), who then learns about an unidentified patient.

He’s sure that it isn’t Gary, but it becomes clear that his attacker is going to extreme lengths to conceal their crime and cover their tracks. They’re even pretending to be his next of kin.

Samia added: ‘It’s bittersweet for Maria [when she learns Gary isn’t the coma patient] because she’s of course glad Gary isn’t in a coma, although little does she know he actually is, but at the same time she’s worried even more now because her fear is he could be in a worse condition or even dead.’

The actress said that, when Maria does find out that Gary is the coma patient, her mind is ‘spiralling’.

‘But she doesn’t stop for a second to think who actually attacked him and put him in a coma, she’s aware Gary has got a lot of enemies from over the years who could have potentially wanted to take revenge on him.’