Coronation Street producer Iain MacLeod has confirmed the coronavirus pandemic will feature in storylines when filming resumes.

However he said the crisis will not ‘dominate every story’ and will be ‘handled with a light touch’. 

The soap halted filming in March due to the virus but the plan is to resume filming when lockdown restrictions start to be lifted. 

MacLeod said via video: “It will be there, you'll be able to see evidence of it in the way people behave, hand-washing protocols and things like that, the way our businesses will be tweaked to more takeaways and the like, as food outlets are doing in the real world.

"However, I am also aware that people tune into Coronation Street for escapism, to some degree, and to see drama and stories that they would never normally experience in their own lives, and stuff they would normally never see in their own living rooms played out on screen.

"We will still continue telling the same brilliant, dramatic stories with the healthy dollop of comedy that we always do, because to do otherwise would be, again, to turn the show into something the viewers don't recognise.

“It will be handled with a light touch. Other than that, our storytelling will be business as usual.”