Former Emmerdale star Gemma Oaten will be joining the cobbles of Coronation Street, ITV has confirmed.

After six years away from Emmerdale Oaten will be moving to Weatherfield as a new love interest of Tyrone Dobbs played by Alan Halsall.

Oaten was part of the Emmerdale cast between 2011 and 2015 portraying Rachel Breckle and has since gone on to appear in Doctor Who, Doctors and Casualty.

Her new character is called Isla and will meet Tyrone at a kids birthday party.

Joining the Coronation Street cast was ‘petrifying’

Oaten has revealed she was “petrified” to be joining the cast but was put at ease by co-star Halsall.

She said: “It was petrifying but then there was Alan (Halsall) with a big grin on his face and then I heard, ‘hello Gemma’, and I noticed someone familiar behind the camera, it was one of the guys from my first job at Doctors, and that was really lovely, that sense of meeting people along the way and it coming back full circle; that was a really nice feeling for me.”

She added: “The scenes I had to read had four or five characters in and I recorded them on my phone – I’m there playing the parts of Tyrone and Fiz and Darcy (Isla’s daughter) and Hope – it was quite funny but it seemed to work.

“I called Isla Is-la, I think it was the mishaps that got me the job.”