Summer Wine star signed up for Coronation Street

Summer Wine star signed up for Coronation Street (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Coronation Street has snapped up Last of the Summer Wine's Jean Fergusson. The actress, who played Marina in the BBC sitcom from 1985, has been cast in the soap as Dorothy Hoyle, the mum of barmy Charlotte (Becky Hindley). She will arrive in Weatherfield under the mistaken impression that Charlotte is set to marry John Stape (Graeme Hawley). Viewers have seen disaster-prone John and Charlotte witness the sudden death of Colin Fishwick, after John stole his identity, before hastily disposing of his body. Jean began filming this week and has been signed for six episodes of the soap. It is not her first foray onto the cobbles. She appeared in an episode in 1999 as Mrs Mallett. 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.