Charles Lawson to narrate Coronation Street play

Charles Lawson to narrate Coronation Street play (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Coronation Street's Charles Lawson has been unveiled as the narrator of a stage version of the soap. Corrie!, which opens at The Lowry in Salford on August 12, condenses the past five decades of the programme into a two-hour play. Charles, who last appeared as Jim McDonald on the soap in 2009, said he was "delighted to be narrating the piece" which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the show. The show runs through the key happenings in Corrie, including its 39 births, 123 deaths and 85 marriages. A cast of five will play the soap's multitude of characters, including favourites such as Bet Lynch, Gail Platt and Elsie Tanner. Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.