Charlie Lawson up for Coronation Street return with Beverley Callard

Charlie Lawson wants to return to 'Coronation Street' alongside Beverley Callard.

The 62-year-old actor - who appeared on the cobbles on and off between 1989 and 2018 - wants his character Jim McDonald and his on-screen wife Beverley's alter-ego Liz McDonald to reunite on the ITV soap, but he fears Jim wouldn't be able to return to the cobbles because he is "an old beast from a different age".

He said: "I would love for the McDonalds to reunite. But I am not sure the writers would know what to do with Jim.

"He is an old beast from a different age and his conception of political correctness would be non-existent. I am not sure how he would fit into 'Corrie'."

Charlie admits the only way he could see a path back for Jim is if he was with his son Steve McDonald, played by Simon Gregson.

And he admits his on-screen lad - who has played Steve since 1989 - nearly quit 'Corrie' during his early days on the show.

He said: "I think the only way Jim would be back is with Steve.

"I know Simon found it very hard. He is still there, bless him - and he very nearly wasn’t.

"He nearly had enough of it in the first few years.

"It is very difficult when you have 20 million viewers. Simon will tell you there were periods when he did not like what he was doing.

"In those days we only had four channels. So if you were a star in 'Corrie', everybody in Britain knew who you were and you were in the newspapers every day."

Charlie admits Beverley became a mother figure to Simon during a period when he was late on more than one occasion.

He added to The Sun newspaper: "I let Bev do most of the lecturing. She was instrumental as he went through a time of, 'Oh dear - you’re late again.'

"I was forever saying to him, 'If you can’t go out all night and turn up on time, then don’t be doing it.' "

Simon has previously admitted he went through a stage of being late for work, or not even turning up at all.

Speaking in 2014, the 47-year-old said: “I’d go through a bottle of Scotch at four or 5am after the pub.

"I was spending all my salary going out or on cars. Sometimes I’d be two hours late for work. Other times I’d not be there at all."