Denise Black: I didn't recognise my younger self in Corrie

Denise Black has told how she could barely recognise her younger self when she returned to Coronation Street after 10 years.

The actress, who plays Denise Osbourne in the ITV soap, appeared on the doorstep in a shock comeback in Tuesday night’s episode.

She headed straight to see her troubled son, Daniel (played by Rob Mallard), whom she abandoned a decade ago.

But she admitted that picking up the character she played between 1992 and 1996, with a brief return in 2007, was not easy.

“I had to go back and watch Denise in the early 90s, which was very strange because it was a long time ago,” said Black, 59.

“That was a different me and I could hardly recognise me – I thought, ‘God, I’m hot’.”

Her arrival came in the midst of Daniel’s emotional breakdown after he confessed he had tried to kill his father, Ken Barlow (William Roache) and began to reveal the impact his mother’s disappearance had made on his adult life.

She said: “It was challenging grappling with the idea that she had abandoned her son.

“It was not an easy one, because look at the cost on him.

“But it is good for an actor to have these flaws to work with, because it opens dramatic doors. If you are a soap character you need to be in the wrong.”

Commenting on Daniel’s struggle, which has already seen him resort to self-harm, she continued: “The idea that a child should feel so little for themselves that they need to control things by harm hurts me as a human being and I am very proud of the creators for covering that.”

Denise told how she spent a night on Rob’s sofa as she got to know her “new” son – the third Daniel Osbourne actor that she has worked with – while filming.

“The godmother of the first little baby Daniel actually found me in Gatwick recently and told me how he was now 20-something,” she said, “so now we are Facebook friends.”

Denise’s return to Weatherfield comes soon after she left her four-year stint on the channel’s other hit soap, Emmerdale.

But despite rumours earlier this year, she insisted that she did not know she would be returning to Coronation Street until after finishing the job.

She said: “I did not know I would be coming back as long as the public thought – the public has told me quite a lot about myself recently and I am very glad that it has turned out to be true.

“I would have been terrified and not able to take this job if I hadn’t done Emmerdale and survived it … it was a very happy job and it’s a wonderful show.”

Denise has also been working near the show’s Manchester set this year for her current role onstage at the Bolton Octagon in the female-focused show, Winter Hill, running until Saturday.

She added that a performance was cancelled last week as the community was left “reeling” in the wake of the terror attack that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena.