ITV has confirmed the details of the forthcoming Coronation Street anniversary play penned by the show's long-term scriptwriter Jonathan Harvey. The stage production, which is called Corrie!, will celebrate 50 years of the Mancunian soap, condensing the programme's entire history into one two-hour show.

Former cast member Charles Lawson, who starred as Jim McDonald on the soap, has signed up to narrate the comedy play.

Speaking of the project, Lawson commented: "I am delighted to be narrating the piece and I am looking forward to this 50th celebration of the 'established church'."

Coronation Street's executive producer Kieran Roberts is to be the play's chief producer for ITV Studios, teaming up with Phil McIntrye Entertainment Ltd. The project is unrelated to the rumoured Coronation Street musical project.

Corrie! will be performed at The Lowry theatre in Salford between August 12 and 25. Tickets are on sale now and are priced between £19 and £25.

Sounds like a hoot! Now, how about a Neighbours musical?

Via TV Scoop

By Mof Gimmers, TV Scoop

The former Coronation Street star Bruce Jones has had a funny old time of it since leaving the show. The actor, who played Les Battersby admitted last month that he pulled at the steering wheel of his wife's car as she drove along a busy road shouting "I'll kill us both!" whilst drunk.

Jones has been sentenced at Mold crown court to eight months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

The actor pleaded guilty to dangerous driving a day after a jury heard his wife's evidence about how he subjected her to years of drink-fuelled physical and emotional abuse. He has since vowed to give up alcohol and save his marriage, reports the Guardian

The judge told him: "You threatened to kill both you and your wife and you jerked the steering wheel up and down, causing the car to swerve within its lane. It is fortunate for you and all others around you that your wife had her wits about her.

"It is all too easy to see if the cards had fallen differently this might have ended in a fatality for you or your wife or for many other drivers."

Medland was told that Jones is in a 26-week rehabilitation programme to tackle his addiction. He said: "The efforts you are making to turn your life around are impressive."

Jones was ordered to do 100 hours' unpaid work and complete a 12-month supervision order and was disqualified from driving for 18 months and must pay £1,000 towards costs.

Bruce played Weatherfield dosspot Les for 10 years until 2007, when he allegedly lost his job due to his drinking.

Dominic D'Souza, in mitigation, said Jones was four weeks into a six-week residential stay at a rehabilitation clinic. Following that he would undergo 20 weeks of cognitive and behavioural therapy and monitoring.

D'Souza said: "He is, for the first time in 20 years, beginning to acknowledge his alcohol problems."He apologises, primarily to his wife, and he has now got some insight as to how inappropriate his behaviour was. He is determined to clean himself up and sort himself out."

Congratulations to Jenny Platt and Rupert Hill who played Violet Wilson and Jamie Baldwin in Coronation Street (pictured here with onscreen son Dylan). They've just become parents to a baby girl in real life.

Matilda was born on Sunday, two weeks late, weighing 7lbs 10oz . Rupert Hill tweeted earlier today: "Forgot to say how amazing St Marys Hospitial's maternity ward is. Everyone who helped bring Matilda to us was brilliant & delightful."

You can follow Rupert Hill's tweets www.twitter.com/RupertHill

Or check out his Facebook page here.

Former Corrie star Suranne Jones met World War II veteran and Chorlton resident John Clarke from the Lottery funded Monte Cassino Veterans Association this week as part of the North West leg of The National Lottery's Britain Has Balls Tour.

The showcase event in Manchester's Cathedral Gardens celebrated the great things ballsy Brits do with Lottery funding to support talent, charities and communities up and down the country. Ninety-year-old John Clarke has been organising trips for World War II veterans for 40 years and has so far received £13,200 of Lottery funding to take fellow veterans and war widows to Northern Italy where his regiment helped to liberate Florence.

Overall Lottery funding has enabled over 42,000 WWII veterans to revisit sites around the world where they served during the war. Says Suranne Jones: "It's great that people in the North West are making a difference with the help of National Lottery funding. I've met some really inspirational people and have been hugely impressed with the projects they are part of."

You can see YouTube footage here

I guess we've known he's had a drink problem for some time, given the way that he left Coronation Street under something of a cloud (slagging off cast members, alleged racist abuse).

But now it seems that Bruce Jones, or Ian Roy Jones to give him his proper name, really needs help after grabbing the wheel of his wife's Mercedes at high speed while two and a half times over the drink-driving limit.

Outside court today the actor said he wanted to beat his alcohol addiction and save his marriage. He issued a statement through his barrister, Dominic D'Souza who stood next to him at Mold Crown Court as he said: "Mr Jones accepts for the first time that he has an alcohol problem which he needs to address.

"It is one that has caused him significant problems over the last five or six years and resulted finally in him being in this situation today. He very much wants to address this with privacy and get his life together and save a marriage that has lasted over 26 years.

"He is very regretful at having his wife subjected to cross- examination in court and found the whole experience very distressing."

It must have been a truly traumatic experience for his wife, but for the actor who played Les Battersby it should hopefully provide something of a wake up call to tackle his alcoholism and depression. The 57 year old will be sentenced for dangerous driving next month.

While there's still speculation about whether Hilda Ogden will come back to Coronation Street, Karen Mc Donald has ruled out a return.

Actress Suranne Jones who played the role is reported to have said somewhat pointedly: "I loved Karen McDonald but I'm moving forward not backwards."

She added: "I'd like to go for dinner with everyone as Suranne, in a nice dress celebrating the fact that I was part of Coronation Street, because it's an amazing thing to be a part of. But there's absolutely no plans to go back."

Since leaving Coronation Street, the 31 year old has played a number of roles including the female lead in the excellent Unforgiven in which she played a murderess, starring alongside Peter Davison.

Via Coventry Telegraph

He left Coronation Street in splendidly dramatic fashion after his drunken off screen antics, including allegedly racist comments and verbal attacks on his co-stars.

But now Bruce Jones, who played the larger than life ne'er do well Les Battersby is back on the small screen.

Sadly not on Coronation Street (I doubt they'd have him back). But in a comedy spoof of The X Factor called That Band. In it, he plays manager of boyband Ovedrive, trying to keep them on the straight and narrow and steering them clear of bad behaviour. How ironic!

It will be Bruce's first appearance on TV since leaving Coronation Street in 2007. Overdrive, which has been described as a cross between Phoenix Nights and Skins, is expected to air on either E4 or Sky soon.

via What's On TV

It's that time of year when all the soap stars take a few weeks off for panto - or at least juggle it round their hectic filming schedules. Oh no they don't, oh yes they do! Expect Corrie to be a ghost town then in February when the episodes they are filming now go out on air.

Boasting its fair share of Corrie stars, both past and present, is Aladdin at the Opera House in Manchester. Chief draw will be Gray O'Brien who plays bad boy Tony Gordon - I'll be keeping an eye out for him as the evil Abanazar (he can expect quite a few boos after his actions this year). But he's not the only Corrie star making an appearance in Aladdin.

Also in the cast is Sue Devaney who played Kevin Webster's little sister in the 1980s (I don't remember her either). She plays Genie of The Ring. But best of all is Eric Potts who was wonderful as Diggory Compton in Corrie. And I'm sure he'll be great as the panto dame Widow Twankey.

Aladdin can be seen at the Opera House in Quay Street until January 3. Ring 0844 847 2295 or visit www.palaceandoperahouse.org.uk.

Got an interesting Corrie star, either past or present, appearing in panto near you. Then leave a comment below to let us know.

What do these two men have in common? Find out after the turn....

Samia Smith was nervous about telling Corrie bosses about her pregnancy, and now has a craving for doughnuts.

Becky's one-night stands are coming back to haunt her, according to Katherine Kelly.

Footballer Dean Windass has been meeting his Corrie namesakes but admits that "Eddie Yeats was my all time favourite character."

Shobna Gulati says she can't bear to look at herself in a full-length mirror. And she's definitely coming back to Corrie, according to ITV.com.

Ryan Connor is about to have a spot of bother involving a "teen sex scenario."

Julia Haworth would love to appear on Strictly Come Dancing.

ITV.com has photos of filming of the beach scenes where Maria gives birth.

Corrie wins 6 awards at the British Soap Awards.

Andrew Sachs talks about his arrival in Coronation Street as Norris's brother.

It's rumoured that Shobna Gulati will return to the Street to play Sunita Alahan.

Joe McIntyre is going to become addicted to painkillers in an upcoming storyline.

Suranne Jones talks about a recent trip to the Congo for the charity Christian Aid. Video here.

Kym Marsh talks about losing baby Archie.

Poppy (Sophiya Haque) and Mary (Patti Clare) will be leaving Coronation Street soon after the characters "failed to make an impact," according to reports. The same report also says that Paula Carp (Sharon Duce) will be leaving, but she was never intended to be a permanent characteranyway and was just part of the storyline about Colin. ITV have denied that the characters are leaving due to cost cuts.

Andrew Sachs says he's having trouble remembering the names of the huge Coronation Street cast, what with having to remember their real names and their character names. Here's a hint: he needn't bother learning Patti Clare's or Sophiya Haque's.

Craig Kelly (Luke Strong) is supporting a local theatre in the north west, where he grew up.

Corrie director Kay Patrick, who was recently injured in an accident on the set, apparently faces a long recovery following damage to her shoulder and knee.

Finally, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't let you know about this: Sean Wilson (Martin Platt) will be judging a cheese show in Nantwich in July. It sounds like something Victoria Wood could have written, but it's absolutely true.

It's just over a year since Jenny Platt's character Violet Wilson drove away from Coronation Street with Jamie Baldwin and new baby Dylan. Jenny is about to appear on stage in her home town of Ipswich in a new play called Chimps, and there's a really interesting interview with her here.

She says that, in many ways, she misses Coronation Street, but she still sees a lot of the cast and crew socially and still lives in Manchester. For her, it was the right time to move on. "I loved being in Corrie, it was a very cosy, very happy environment," she says. "I could feel myself settling into a very comfortable little rut. I had been in the series for three years but I felt that, as tempting as it was to stay; professionally I was missing something. Being in a series like Coronation Street is...

Proving there's life after Weatherfield, here's what some former Coronation Street stars have been up to recently.

Chris Bisson (Vikram Desai) plays back-from-the-dead Kash Karib in the new series of Shameless.

Thelma Barlow (Mavis Wilton) has been helping to launch a new bus service for older people in Dorset.

John Savident (Fred Elliott) will star in HMS Pinafore in this year's Malvern Festival.

Bill Ward (Charlie Stubbs) is set to appear on stage in a new production of Look Back in Anger. He'll also be guesting in Robin Hood on BBC1 tomorrow.

Tina Hobley (Sam Failsworth) talks about her role in Holby City, and her love of fast cars.

And Wendi Peters (Cilla Battersby) talks about her childhood, her time in Corrie and why being in The Vagina Monologues is so important to her.

Some of you who have been watching Coronation Street from the start may remember that there was a spinoff series, called Pardon the Expression, featuring the character of Leonard Swindley, the erstwhile co-manager (along with Miss Nugent) of Gamma Garments and moral monitor of the Glad Tidings Mission. Leonard was played by the wonderful Arthur Lowe. Spotted over on our sister site, TVScoop, reporter mofgrimmers has posted about a new DVD set of the spinoff series. It's a 2-DVD set and should be released on May 4. Mof tells you all about it so I won't repeat it here (but I *have* nicked his photo of the DVD cover!). I'll be in the U.K. in May. I may have to check this out!

Comments? Email us!

I've recently started watching Robin Hood on BBC1 of a Saturday evening, and I have to say I love it. It's the baddies I like, Keith Allen and Richard Armitage, all dark eyeshadow and sadistic menace. This coming Saturday they'll be joined by an old face from Coronation Street - Bill Ward, who played Charlie Stubbs. He's playing a character called Rufus who is described as "ruthless," and his activities include kidnapping another ex-Corrie star, Joanne Froggatt, who plays the lovely Kate.

Kevin Kennedy, who played Curly Watts in Coronation Street from 1983 to 2003, has said that he'd like to come back. He told the Sun, "Curly moved to Newcastle and there's more mileage in him. I'd like to return as he still has a story to tell." There are still quite a few characters in the Street that Curly would know, so maybe a visit to see his old mate Kevin Webster would be quite plausible. I agree that it would be nice to know what he's been up to since he left Weatherfield. What do you think? Let's have a quick poll!

Two of Coronation Street's former actresses have been involved in a bit of a controversy. Denise Welch (Natalie Barnes) and Sherrie Hewson (Maureen Holdsworth) are both regular panelists in the ITV daytime talk show Loose Women. A squabble broke out between the two during one of last week's programmes (over whether anyone wanted to see Denise's caesarian scar, of all things), and after the ad break Sherrie wasn't in her seat. She later mentioned on Twitter that she'd had a severe nosebleed that required treatment, and a statement on the Loose Women website says that she'll be back after a pre-arranged holiday. It hasn't stopped speculation on site comments, though.

Photo: WENN.com

Regular Corrieblog commentator and occasional writer Seanie went to see Wendi Peters in Cecilia Ahern's play Mrs Whippy the other day, in Kilkenny in Ireland. And afterwards, he got to meet the lady herself. "We asked the stage manager could she come up to the main hall for a minute for a pic and an autograph and she came!" Seanie says. "I told her I was a big fan and told her that I got Out Of Africa for Christmas, and she said 'that was very fun to do!'"

Have you met any Corrie stars? Email us!

I know it's still March, but paranoia is already kicking in and I'm suspecting someone is playing a hideous April Fool joke. Apparently, the dreadful song Agadoo (you know, the Black Lace one about pushing pineapples and shaking trees, complete with hand gestures) is about to be re-released. It was once voted the worst song of all time, but in 1984 it was, for some reason, a huge hit. The band reckon "With all the doom and gloom in the world, this is just what we need." Just what we need to push us over the edge, perhaps.

So what's this got to do with Corrie? Well, where there's a song there's a video these days, and the video to this one is to be directed by none other than Coronation Street's Les Battersby, Bruce Jones. And Kevin Kennedy (aka Curly) appears in it, alongside Bruce himself.

Please say this is all for charity. That would be the only possible excuse for inflicting such horror upon us.

The glorious Richard Fleeshman (formerly Corrie's Craig Harris) can be seen in a video interview on DS, talking about his new TV series All The Small Things (which is on BBC1 tomorrow). As usual, when asked whether he would ever return to Corrie he says he would never rule it out. "I learned so much there, and made so many friends," he says.

The also-glorious Michelle Keegan (Tina) has landed herself a new job - as DJ. She'll be doing whatever it is people do with turntables at Relish in Manchester. "It won't just be the music getting the guys' hearts beating fast," one of her close personal friends told The People. Ryan Thomas (Jason)'s little brother Adam, who stars in Waterloo Road, will also be doing a guest night at the club next month.

According to Antony Cotton (Sean), wearing comfy slippers behind the bar and scoffing the bar snacks are just two of the perks of being a Rovers Return barmaid. He also reveals that "Deirdre is mad for peanuts, so she's always nicking them."

Jimmi Harkishin (Dev) has been unveiling some new equipment which will save the lives of newborn babies at Warwick Hospital. Jimmi is a vice-president of the charity Baby Lifeline, and a £20,000 donation was raised by Kenilworth Round Table.

The Manchester opening night of We Will Rock You, which stars former Coronation Street favourite Kevin Kennedy (Curly), was a star-studded affair. Current Corrie cast members Tupele Dorgu (Kelly), Brooke Vincent (Sophie) and Jennie McAlpine (Fiz) were there, as were former Corrie stars Suranne Jones (Karen McDonald) and Denise Welch (Natalie Barnes). And there was another high-profile guest in the audience, too - Robbie Williams, who was there to support his friend Jonathan Wilkes, who is in the show. He made a low-key arrival in an enormous bus with "VIP" written on the side.

It was all very exciting for Brooke Vincent, who told the MEN: "I didn't realise it was going to be such a big event. Everyone's in the mood for dancing."

See a video of all the celebs (including Robbie) arriving at the show here

Photo: 247images/WENN

Andrew Dunn, who played Janice's love interest and Ken's fellow history-buff Roger the Plumber in Coronation Street, is about to return to a role that he loves. He'll be playing Tony in a stage adaptation of the hit TV comedy dinnerladies, along with fellow original cast member and ex-Corrie star Shobna Gulati.

He says that his experience on Coronation Street wasn't entirely positive. "I started off on contract, but then they used me when they wanted me - eight episodes and then I wasn't needed for six weeks. They got going on storylines that only needed a handful of people and no one else was needed. The arrival of a new producer [Kim Crowther] was partly the reason my character was written out. She came in and got rid of about ten people," he says. "I enjoyed bits of it but because I wasn't involved in it a lot, it was frustrating."

Dinnerladies is at York Theatre Royal from 24-28 March, and at Darlington Civic Theatre from 18-23 May 18 to 23.

Becky would go ballistic if she knew about this, but it's true - Steve McDonald still has Karen's number on his mobile, and they text each other regularly!

According to Suranne Jones, who played Karen, Simon Gregson is still listed on her mobile as "Steve," and she's on his mobile as "Karen." She says: "I'll text him and tell him what Karen has been up to today and he'll tell me what Steve has been doing. He did ring to let me know about him and Becky."

So that's ok, then. Suranne approves of "Steve"'s latest fiancee. "Steve and Karen were always great together, but Steve and Becky are just brilliant. I think they're a match made in heaven. I just love Katherine Kelly as an actress."

Suranne has been a busy woman since leaving the Street, with roles in various dramas, some of them more successful (Unforgiven) than others (Harley Street). Her next project is a trip to Africa for the charity Christian Aid.

Comments? Email Corrieblog!

What are ex-Corrie people up to now?

Tina O'Brien (Sarah Platt) says she's "dying of exhaustion" coping with the demands of a small baby. Read about how she's coping with motherhood here.

John Savident (Fred Elliott) will be flexing his vocal chords in a production of the Gilbert & Sullivan opera HMS Pinafore in Bath in May.

Angela Griffin (Fiona Middleton), who is about to rejoin the cast of Waterloo Road, says she'd love to be invited back onto Corrie.

Meanwhile, Waterloo Road star Adam Thomas, who isn't an ex-Corrie star at all but the brother of current Corrie star Ryan Thomas (Jason), has been signed up to appear in Doctors. The show recently snapped up Katherine Kelly's sister Grace - seems like they're trying to set up a Corrie sibling cast!