Coronation Street announces Eileen Derbyshire will be returning as Emily Bishop!

Coronation Street bosses have delighted their loyal fans with the exciting news that Eileen Derbyshire will soon be returning to their screens!

The much-missed actress is set to reprise her role as the legendary Emily Bishop in some special scenes for the birthday of Ken Barlow.

For the appearance - which will mark her first scenes on the soap in more than three years, after she was last seen onscreen in January 2016 - Emily will be seen making a video call to Ken during his 80th birthday bash at the Rovers Return.

Announcing the news, Corrie bosses took Twitter to share a screengrab of Eileen smiling broadly as she filmed her scenes as Emily.

Alongside the picture, they wrote: "This week we're filming Ken's 80th Birthday party and look who surprises him with a special video message - it's Emily!

"See it all on-screen in October".

Eileen had been a soap regular before her departure, playing Emily since 1961 - which made her the soap's longest-standing female character.

The much-loved character left to go travelling in Peru to reunite with her nephew Spider Nugent.

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Producer Iain MacLeod previously told The Sun that he had been trying to woo Eileen back to the Cobbles.

He said: "We're in talks fairly regularly with Eileen.

"At the moment there's no plans for her to return, but... the door's certainly not closed there."

Watch Coronation Street on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9.30pm on TVNZ1.