“She’s not stupid and I don’t want her to look stupid.”

Coronation Street star Channique Sterling-Brown has shared her concerns about an element of her character Dee-Dee Bailey’s current storyline, as she uncovers Joel Deering’s lies.

As viewers of the ITV soap will know, Joel has been living a secret life and was presumed responsible for the murder of Lauren Bolton, after leaving her for dead.

Lauren however returned to the cobbles while pregnant with Joel’s child, and he’s since been keeping his relationship with her and the new baby secret by housing her in his old flat while making arrangements for her to move to Belfast.

But after the birth of Lauren’s baby, Joel’s fiancée Dee-Dee starts to become even more suspicious of him after his ex-wife Emily reveals he’s still paying rent on his old flat – leading to a confrontation in scenes airing next week.

Channique has now shared how she wanted to ensure that Joel’s deception and Dee-Dee’s growing suspicions about his true nature played out as authentically as possible.

“The one thing I said to the producers at the start of this storyline was, ‘She’s not stupid and I don’t want her to look stupid’, and there’s this whole chapter where she is in the dark,” she explained.

“It’s been really important to establish this relationship because Joel has gotten to know Dee-Dee so well which has allowed him to manipulate her to the best of his ability.

“A lot of people find themselves in situations where they’ve been deceived and we’ve got to do them justice by not just having them seem like a rose-tinted glasses type of person.

“As abusers and narcissists like Joel do, they ensure they have completely sold a different version of who they really are and that was really important for me to portray.”

In scenes due to air next week, Dee-Dee lets herself into the flat with a set of keys that she found in Joel’s open briefcase and begins playing detective, discovering a jewellery receipt there.

Lauren also tells Dee-Dee she’s planning to move to Belfast, which matches a notification for a flight on Joel’s phone.

After more tough conversations with Emily which contradict Joel’s story that he bought the bracelet for his daughter Maeve, Dee-Dee becomes convinced that her fiancé is having an affair – and is set to demand the truth from him.

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.