Coronation Street newcomer was 'rejected' by ITV bosses six times before landing huge role

A newcomer to Coronation Street has shared that it took him seven attempts to land a role on the ITV soap. From previously auditioning for smaller roles to some of the biggest roles, Shameless star Aaron McCusker was never what the soap's bosses were looking for at the time - until now.

The 46-year-old actor has been cast as a newcomer on the Cobbles, Ben Driscoll - the husband of Eva Price, played by Cath Tyldesley, who is making a major comeback. He is also set to bring his chaotic family with him, including his mouthy mother-in-law, Maggie, played by Pauline McLynn, as they take over the Rovers Return pub. Speaking about how he came about landing the role of Ben, Aaron told us at a press day: "I was in a play in Dublin and my agent phoned me to see if I wanted to audition for Coronation Street.

"I got very excited because I had actually already auditioned for Corrie and this is my sixth time. Every time it wasn't always for a lead role, like the last time was just for 14 episodes but I did also audition for the role of Todd back in the day.

"The show bosses always said to me that they wanted to hold out for something bigger for me, and I always thought 'yeah, ok I'll believe it when I see it'.

"But they were true to their word when they phoned me with this and said it was to be the landlord of the Rovers. I thought well you can't get much bigger than that!"

He went on to say that he recorded a self-tape as part of the audition process, and chose to adopt a Mancunian accent because of where the ITV soap is set. However, bosses didn't like that Aaron had moved away from his Irish roots.

"I did it all in Irish and then they asked me to do it all in Irish as well," he said. "It was because there was a busy-body mum joining and they said 'we think it might work if she's Irish and obviously you're Irish'.

"Four days later, I got the call to say that the part was mine. Seventh time lucky."

Also joining the cast will be Eva's daughter Susie (Aurora Bradshaw) and Ben's two sons Will (Lucas Hodgson-Wale) and Ollie (Raphael Akuwudike). Ollie is known to Corrie fans as he has been dating Dee Dee for a couple of months but hasn't told her about his family's plans to move to the street.

As the recently released trailer shows, they waste no time in settling into the pub and welcoming all the regulars with a huge opening party but the arrival of Ben's mum Maggie brings some shocking news for Eva.