Natalie Gumede to star in Moving On

(Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Strictly Come Dancing favourite Natalie Gumede will appear in the new series of BBC1's daytime drama Moving On.

The actress, who played villainous Kirsty Soames in Coronation Street and who this week injured her back during training for Strictly, will star in one of the five stand-alone episodes in the fifth series of Jimmy McGovern's acclaimed drama anthology.

Moving On's star-studded cast also includes former EastEnders actresses Anita Dobson and Jo Joyner, Inspector George Gently's Lee Ingleby, Love and Marriage's Duncan Preston, Pulling's Sharon Horgan, Downton Abbey's Amy Nuttall and Duty Free's Keith Barron. Johnny Vegas and Hustle's Robert Glenister will also direct episodes of the drama, which will screen later in the autumn.

The series, which is filmed in and around Liverpool and centres on characters reaching a turning point in their lives, will be the BBC's first ever drama to appear on iPlayer before it screens on BBC1 and is part of the BBC's plans to premiere more shows online from various genres.

Jimmy McGovern said: “I always enjoy working on Moving On: five new stories from five brilliant writers, and a cracking cast too.”

Caren has been a journalist specializing in TV for almost two decades and is a Senior Features Writer for TV Times, TV & Satellite Week and What’s On TV magazines and she also writes for What to Watch.

Over the years, she has spent many a day in a muddy field or an on-set catering bus chatting to numerous stars on location including the likes of Olivia Colman, David Tennant, Suranne Jones, Jamie Dornan, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Derek Jacobi as well as Hollywood actors such as Glenn Close and Kiefer Sutherland.

Caren will happily sit down and watch any kind of telly (well, maybe not sci-fi!), but she particularly loves period dramas like Call the Midwife, Downton Abbey and The Crown and she’s also a big fan of juicy crime thrillers from Line of Duty to Poirot.

In her spare time, Caren enjoys going to the cinema and theatre or curling up with a good book.