A Coronation Street star is to perform at the Gaiety Theatre in April.

Sian Reeves plays Charlie Wood in the ITV soap.

She is the deluded wife Tim Metcalfe didn’t know he had.

But she’ll be taking a break from Weatherfield to perform in the new stage play adaptation of Helen Forrester’s, By the Waters of Liverpool.

The play is set in the 1930s after Helen’s father went bankrupt during the Depression.

Her family were forced to leave behind the nannies, servants and comfortable middle-class life in the south west of England.

The Forresters chose Liverpool to rebuild their shattered lives, but they were in for a terrible shock.

Taken out of school to look after her young siblings, Helen is treated as an unpaid slave. So begins a bitter fight with her parents for the right to go out to work and make her own way in life.

By 1939 and with Britain on the verge of war, Helen now aged 20, had still never been kissed by a man. But things start looking up for her when she meets a tall strong seaman and falls in love.

complex

Sian said: ’I’ll be playing "Mother", Celia Forrester, who is a wonderfully complex person.

’From money, status and class, before the great depression of the 1930s, to then losing everything and being dumped in a damp bug-infested house with one cold tap, one toilet and seven children to look after. I think she absolutely cannot shake herself out of the nightmare that is now her new life.

’She is stunned that her husband, who once held a senior position in the financial world, cannot find work and they have to grovel for handouts from the local parish.

’To escape the confines of this smelly, claustrophobic house she leaves the day-to-day running of the family to her 11-year-old daughter, Helen.

’Helen actually said of her mother, "her bouts of temper bordered on insanity". But really she is exhausted and so dreadfully depressed. It’s a great role to play.’

The 11-week tour follows a at the Liverpool Empire Theatre in October 2018.

The show will also visit venues in Wirral, Stockport, Warrington, St Helens, Lancaster, Southport, Crewe, Rhyl, Swansea, Darlington, Malvern, Eastbourne, Hayes, Winchester, Liverpool and Blackpool.

The touring cast also features Parry Glasspool, Lucy Dixon, Eric Potts, Lynn Francis, Danny O’Brien, Roy Carruthers and Chloe McDonald.

The play also stars Mark Moraghan, who is best known for his role as medic Owen Davies in Holby City. Other TV credits include Coronation Street, London’s Burning and Brookside. He also made numerous guest appearances on Harry Enfield & Chums.

Following in the tracks of Ringo Starr and Michael Angelis, Mark is now the voice of Thomas the Tank Engine.

The production of By the Waters of Liverpool also features material from Helen’s earlier book Liverpool Miss, together with flashbacks to Twopence To Cross The Mersey.

Tickets cost from £22 plus booking fee.