Coronation Street stars from past and present attended the world premiere of a new play created in the soap's honour to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

The new stage play - titled 'Corrie' - boldly aims to represent 2,000 storylines in just a two hour show, with 55 famous Corrie characters all brought to life by just five actors.

The prospect of seeing their characters recreated on stage is set to draw many of the soap's stars from over the years to The Lowry theatre in Salford.

Among the famous faces from the soap's past due to be heading to the gala opening night included Denise Welch, who played barmaid Natalie Barnes, Nikki Sanderson, who played hairdresser Candice Stowe, Johnny Briggs, the soap's infamous Mike Baldwin, Roy Barraclough who played Rovers landlord Alec Gilroy and Ken Morley, the soap's hilarious Reg Holdsworth.

They were expected to be joined by a host of the long-running show's present day stars – including soap stalwarts Barbara Knox, who plays Rita Sullivan, Sally Dynevor, the show's Sally Webster, and David Neilson who play Roy Cropper.

Also due at the bash were soap favourites like Antony Cotton (Sean Tully), Vicky Binns (Molly Dobbs), Shobna Gulati (Sunita Alahan), Julia Haworth (Claire Peacock) and Jennie McAlpine (Fiz Stape).

See Tuesday's MEN for a review of the play.