CORONATION Street legend Beverley Callard is joining another soap after landing a surprise new telly job.

The actress, 68, is set to join Fair City – the most popular and longest-running Irish drama serial – next year.

She’s joining fiery Irish soap Fair CityCredit: RTE
A source told The Sun: “Fair City is hugely admired in Ireland, but it’s not known quite as well back in England so it’s a bit of a rogue move.

“But Beverley is really excited about the opportunity to be going in as a regular and plans to make her mark on the soap.”

Beverley quit her iconic role as Rovers Return landlady Liz McDonald in 2019 after 30 years on-screen.

However, she missed on filming her final scene because of the pandemic.

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Beverley later ruled out a return to the soap, saying the “chapter had closed”.

She went on to star in I’m A Celebrity 2020, which was filmed in Gwrych Castle in Wales instead of Australia, and struck up a close friendship with her campmate, Capital Breakfast Show host Jordan North.

After being landed with a hefty tax bill, ITV insiders claim Beverley hoped to make a return to Corrie.

But comments made about the soap rubbed bosses up the wrong way.

“I just felt that the scripts weren’t what they used to be,” Beverley told the podcast How To Be 60 in 2023.

“I’m trying to be diplomatic. I wasn’t miserable, it’s difficult to put into words, but years ago, we used to get the script and you’d think ‘oh my God, this is amazing, I cannot believe I’m going to be filming this’.

‘But for me it got to, well, they didn’t write for me as much because I was older and that really got to me.

“If you’re there, you want to be busy. There’s nothing worse than being bored.

“And I would open the script and think ‘Well we filmed that three years ago and it wasn’t very exciting’.”

She will be back on ITV in the New Year however, having flown to South Africa to film I’m A Celebrity All Stars show with celebs including Harry Redknapp and Mo Farah.

She starred on I’m A Celebrity 2020Credit: Rex
The inaugural All Stars series aired in 2023 and featured stars such as Carol Vorderman, Amir Khan, Andy Whyment and Joe Swash.

Ultimately, it saw Myleene Klass crowned the first “I’m A Celebrity Legend”.

This year, a furious argument broke out during filming when actor Adam Thomas flew into a fit of rage.

The Waterloo Road star, 37, saw red with former footballer Jimmy Bullard, 47, as they clashed during a tense Bushtucker Trial.

It’s thrown the live final, expected to be filmed in May, into chaos as both stars are yet to confirm whether they will both be there to find out who wins the show.

It’s not yet known when Beverley will be seen on Fair City, but is most likely to keep her commitment to appearing at the live final held in London, with TV viewers able to vote for the winner.

The soap has been running on RTE since 1989, following the lives of the residents of Carrigstown, a fictional suburb of Dublin.

ITV and RTE were approached for comment.

Beverley worked alongside Charles Lawson as her on-screen husbandCredit: Rex Features

The McDonald family arrived in 1989Credit: Rex