Coronation Street star Sue Devaney has given more insight into her character Debbie Webster's surprise association with villain Ray Crosby (Mark Frost).

Over the past few months businessman Ray has been stealthily buying up the properties on one side of the street with the aim of demolishing them to make way for a new development - and in Monday's episodes, it was revealed that Debbie is his secret partner in making it happen.

"They used to go out together a long time ago and I think Ray really hurt her," Devaney told soaps reporters this week. "And I think as well, Debbie's at a certain age now, like me, she's in her fifties, she's got more life behind her than in front of her.

"Well she's never been married, never had any kids, she's always been into her business and yet years have passed by and she's always gone for the bad guy. She's always fancied the rough and ready bloke, which has been Ray obviously.

"She thinks she's doing everything for the good of everyone else and I think that is what Debbie's about, she doesn't do it from a place where she is going to destroy all the houses.

"Because she has come from that area, she thinks she can make this place so much better than it is and I don't think she realises the consequences for these people who have lived there all their lives. She is going in and ripping down an area."

The storyline is expected to come to a head during the soap's 60th anniversary episodes in early December.