Corrie denies 'hiding' church cross

Coronation Street bosses have denied claims that a church cross was intentionally obstructed during filming of a recent wedding.

Earlier this week, it was claimed that producers had requested that the brass religious symbol be moved out of view for fear of causing offence.

However, after a full investigation by show executives, ITV now claims that there was a misunderstanding over the request for the cross to be moved.

A spokesperson for the soap said: "Contrary to claims that the programme’s producers wanted the cross moving as they were worried its inclusion would offend people, what actually happened was that they wanted to move the cross so that it was not hidden.

"A member of crew knew that they were dressing the set with candles and flowers and knew this would obstruct the view of the cross. A member of church staff was asked if the cross could be moved.

"When she asked why they wanted it moving, she was told that Coronation Street didn’t want to cause offence to anyone when the scenes were shown," they continued.

"It now transpires that she took this to mean that production felt people would be offended by seeing the cross, when in fact they were concerned that the props were blocking the view of the cross. In fact during the Wednesday episode of Coronation Street a shot of the cross was seen."

They added: "We have now made this clear to the Reverend Milnes, who is going to explain this to his parishioners, and we apologise for this misunderstanding."

The wedding in question saw Molly (Vicky Binns) and Tyrone (Alan Halsall) tie the knot in a traditional white wedding.