Weatherfield actress reveals café dream

Coronation Street's Shobna Gulati has announced that she is hoping to launch her own café in the future.

The actress, best known for her role as Weatherfield's Sunita Alahan, has a passion for culinary pursuits and appeared on BBC One's Celebrity Masterchef earlier this year.

Gulati told The Sun: "I just love cooking. It's one of my dreams to open a café in Manchester, a place where you could get fresh, home-cooked food."

It is believed that the 42-year-old used to spend time creating dishes for her Coronation Street co-stars before bowing out of the show in 2005.

In April this year, it was confirmed that Gulati would return to the ITV1 soap in October as part of a "new direction" for Sunita's ex Dev Alahan (Jimmy Harkishin).

Speaking at the time, she revealed: "Sunita's a heartwarming character and I'd like to see her come back as a mature woman - she has brought up two kids on her own and she's not a girl anymore."