Callard hires ex-on-screen son to run pub

Coronation Street actress Bev Callard, who plays landlady Liz McDonald in the soap, has hired her former on-screen son to run the pub she has bought in real life.

Nick Cochrane, who appeared as Bev's son Andy on the show for nine years, has now taken on the role as manager at The Gallery pub-restaurant in Hale, Greater Manchester.

Callard admitted that the customers have to take a step back when they walk in and see her and Nick together, especially when her former on-screen husband Charlie Lawson (Jim McDonald) and son Simon Gregson (Steve McDonald) come in for a drink as well.

She said: "People are completely taken aback when they see me and Nick together."

Cochrane was working in the licensing trade and had kept in contact with Callard since he left the ITV1 programme and decided to pop in for a visit.

Callard explained: "We’re great friends and have kept in touch over the years.

"Then after I took over The Gallery he paid us a visit and said, ‘I wouldn’t mind working here’.

"It seemed such an obvious decision and we haven’t looked back since."

The actress' 18-year-old real-life son Josh also works behind the bar.