IN PICTURES: Coronation Street stars who have swapped the cobbles for south Essex over the years

While Corrie centres around residents living on a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford, there are still plenty of links to south Essex.

Danny Young enjoyed a stint on the show and has since gone on to establish a theatre school in Rayleigh.

Helen Worth, who has played Gail Platt since the 1970s, was on hand to switch on the Christmas lights along the seafront during the Southend Illuminations before the turn of the century.

Helping the next generation - Danny Young stands outside Rayleigh’s FitzWimarc School after opening a theatre school in September 2012

Mikey North, who portrays Gary Windass, opened Billericay High Street’s Poundland and actress Michelle Keegan is married to former TOWIE star Mark Wright.

Scroll down to see more photographs of what connects south Essex with the historic ITV soap.

Meeting fans - Mikey North, who has played Gary Windass in the ITV soap since 2008, meets Kathy and Thalia Brown in the Poundland store on Billericay High Street

At the seafront - Helen Worth, who has played Gail Platt since 1974, switched on the lights at the Southend Illuminations

Dramatic - Coronation Street barmaid Tina McIntyre, played by Michelle Keegan, lying on the cobbles when she fell from the balcony of the builders’ yard to her death in 2014

Last orders - Castle Point MP Rebecca Harris stands behind the Rovers Return bar during a tour of the Coronation Street set

Local lad - Essex-born Danny Young (fourth from left) had a short stint as Warren Baldwin on the soap and backed Little Havens Children’s Hospice in the National Lottery Awards finals a decade ago

SEE ALSO

• IN PICTURES: What it was like for Beauchamps High School pupils in 1980s and 1990s
• IN PICTURES: Iconic entertainers who got Rayleigh moving at the Pink Toothbrush

Together - former Coronation Street actress Michelle Keegan married ex-Southend United trainee and TOWIE star Mark Wright in 2015

All smiles - former Coronation Street actor and Dancing on Ice star Danny Young sits proudly with members of the Rayleigh-based Danny Young Theatre School

Star attraction - Coronation Street actor Mikey North was on hand to open Billericay High Street’s Poundland for the first time in September 2012

Birthday - Coronation Street is celebrating 60 years of being on the British public’s television screens having first aired on December 9, 1960