Michael Le Vell to take break from Corrie to 'seek professional help' after cocaine admission

Having just returned to Coronation Street, Michael Le Vell is to take a break while 'seeking professional help' following his admission he used cocaine in the lead up to last year's child rape trial.

According to the Daily Mirror, the 49-year-old actor, who plays Kevin Webster in Coronation Street, confessed to the Sunday Mirror he took the drug in 'a moment of weakness' while awaiting trial on rape and other charges, from which he was cleared.

Following a meeting with Coronation Street producers on Tuesday, Le Vell will take another break, having been back filming on the street for seven weeks.

An ITV statement said: "Coronation Street and Michael Le Vell have mutually agreed that he will take a break from the programme while he seeks professional help for personal issues."

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.