Coronation Street's Tara to quit the soap

Coronation Street star Ayesha Dharker is set to bow out of the ITV1 soap in spectacular fashion next month. The former Bollywood actress, who plays Tara Mandal, will leave the show after humiliating boyfriend Dev (Jimmi Harkishin) 'on a grand scale'. Ayesha told The Sun: "I've enjoyed playing Tara because she's different to me." Fans of the star hoping for more from scheming Tara will be disappointed, as a spokeswoman at ITV confirmed the actress's departure and said: "The character was only ever in for that long as the storyline was written with a beginning, middle and end. Ayesha knew that." Given what she does to Dev, maybe leaving Weatherfield behind isn't such a bad thing... Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's new weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop Get all the latest soap gossip delivered straight to your door. Subscribe to Soaplife magazine today

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.