William Roache set for camp return to Coronation Street

William Roache will return to his role as Ken Barlow on Coronation Street.

William Roache is set to return to Coronation Street next month in a comic camping-based storyline.

The English actor, 82, was cleared of sexual offences earlier this year after playing Ken Barlow on the long-running ITV soap since it began in 1960.

Since the high profile trial, Roache has been absent from the show, but he is due to start shooting in the next fortnight for scenes to air in the UK in August.

Roache's character was written out of the script when he was arrested last May, with viewers told that he was visiting his sick grandson in Canada.

Now, producer Stuart Blackburn has dropped some hints on what to expect from Ken's Weatherfield comeback, which will feature a caravan holiday to North Wales with wife Deirdre, played by Anne Kirkbride.

"Ken raises the idea of going on holiday and she's busy scanning the papers for places in Monaco or Barbados, something like that," he said, according to the BBC. "Then he pulls up in a hired caravan going, 'Let's go to North Wales!'"

Roache's return comes in the midst of the dark storyline surrounding the murder of Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan) and just after Coronation Street won a Bafta for Continuing Drama earlier this week.

- Independent