Coronation Street's Jane Danson has a baby boy

Coronation Street's Jane Danson has a baby boy (Image credit: PA Archive/PA Photos)

Coronation Street star Jane Danson gave birth to her second son on Thursday, making her the fourth new parent on the soap in less than a month. The actress, who plays troublemaker Leanne Battersby in the ITV1 soap, already has a two-year-old son, Harry, with her husband former Brookside actor Robert Beck. According to reports in The Sun, Jane and Robert have named their little boy Alfie Sam Robert. He is the fourth baby to arrive for a Coronation Street cast member. Alison King, who plays conniving Carla Connor, had a girl called Daisy Mae two weeks ago. Meanwhile, co-star Jack P Shepherd, 21, bad boy David Platt in the soap, was celebrating after his fiancée Lauren Shippey gave birth to daughter Nyla Rae in the same week. And Wanda Opalinska - factory worker Wiki Dankowska - gave birth just a few days after that to a baby boy who she named Rafal. The births are thought to be lifting spirits on the Street after the soap was hit by three deaths earlier this month. Get all the latest soap gossip delivered straight to your door. Subscribe to Soaplife magazine today 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.