Coronation Street's Maria Connor has nev                                                              er been too lucky in love.

But that was all going to change when she decided to take control of her love life and meet someone new. Or, well, she was hoping it would. Unfortunately, Actress Samia Longchambon told Metro about the string of Maria's bad dates - and the sparks of romance between her character and Ali Neeson. She said:

"She starts going on these weird and wonderful dates – it doesn’t last further than one date per guy. "They’re all really random. The first one brings along his mum and she’s quite insulting to Maria and says she’s quite ordinary looking so she’s straight out the door, that puts her off. "There’s one date she has whose girlfriends have all died under suspicious circumstances and all of their names end with the letter ‘a’. Maria literally legs it out of the bistro."

Then, she ends up on a date with a guy who likes to dress as a dog - and a string of misunderstandings makes the date a whole lot more awkward. She continued:

"Maria thinks he is a goth because he has a collar on so she says she is into all of that as well and he obviously thinks she’s the perfect woman. "She tells him she used to work at the kennels and was barking around – she meant to music but he thought literally barking!

"She asks to see the pictures as he says he has all of the accessories and then the picture shows him dressed as a dog. By that time, Maria is saying she is full as she just wants to leave and Ali offers a doggy bag.

"And Maria is annoyed at him making fun of him and Maria’s like – ‘well so what if he likes to dress as a dog!?’ The guy just legs it out of the door – his name is Rex too!’"

Things change when Ali comes by to patch things up with Maria - and the two of them share  kiss. She said:

"He comes round to apologise as she thinks he is making fun of her love life. They end up having a couple of bottles and they start having a little dance. " They have this kiss – there is something simmering. It’s more whether Maria can act on it as she doesn’t want to upset Michelle…"