Coronation St cast Michelle's new man

Coronation St cast Michelle's new man (Image credit: Jean/EMPICS Entertainment)

Coronation Street's Michelle Connor is to have a new love interest this autumn. Kenny Doughty has been cast as a builder called Jake, who is set to win over the feisty mum, played by Kym Marsh. The actor, 30, has previously appeared in Shameless, Spooks and Dinner Ladies, and also starred with former Coronation Street star Roy Barraclough (Alec Gilroy) in the 2005 black comedy Funland. He begins filming the ITV1 soap next week, and will hit TV screens in October, initially for six episodes, the show's official website reported. During her three years on the cobbles, Michelle has had no shortage of love interests. Her husband Dean died before she made her Weatherfield debut, and since then she's dated love rat Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson), boozy Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne) and Underworld boss Luke Strong (Craig Kelly). Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's new 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.