[Scarlett.]

Former Corrie star Charlie Lawson is returning to the ITV soap to reprise his role as bad boy Jim McDonald.

Irish Jim – known for his catchphrase “So It Is” - was a regular character for a period of eleven years from 1989 until 2000, before sporadic appearances over the last decade.

Now the 54-year-old actor has been drafted in at at time when there is a shortage of well known male characters on screen with the absence of Michael Le Vell and Bill Roach.

A show source said: “Charlie was delighted to get the call to return to the soap. He still has lots of friends on the Street and will be back in June to film initially for around three months.

"If things go well he will be there until the end of the year and it could lead to more work.

“The character Jim is still very much in prison so the storyline won’t see him back on the Street itself, but that could happen in years to come.”

Charlie’s on-screen persona is set to cause havoc when he returns to screens in July.

He is married to Liz McDonald, played by Beverley Callard, and sparks will fly with the new Rovers landlady.

Charlie was last seen in the soap in 2011 and currently runs a farm shop in Prestbury with his long term partner Debbie Stanley.

Before meeting her he had a troubled second marriage and in 2001, he had to declare himself bankrupt owing nearly £200,000 to the Inland Revenue, two banks and two credit card companies.

Ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary, he had hinted he may be killed in the tram crash, saying in 2010: “I suspect I’ve been in the frame for it. If my character gets killed I would be sad, but really I would be waiting for my next job.”

He joined in 1989 with wife Liz and 15-year-old twin sons Steven and Matthew.

He seemed cool and calm but initially hid a temper which flared up violently when his family or pride were hurt.

He and Liz have always had a stormy relationship and Jim got violent and his paranoid over Liz’s affairs which drove them apart.

Their first marriage ended in 1996 after Jim hit Liz when she confessed to a fling with his colleague Johnny Johnson years earlier.

They re-married in 2000 prior to Jim being sentenced of the manslaughter of drug dealer Jez Quigley, who had beaten up Steve.

But they split again in 2005 when Liz had enough of waiting for Jim.

He was released from Highmoor Prison in 2007 and remained a free man until 2011, when he was given a seven-year sentence for trying to rob a Building Society to give Liz enough money to buy the Rovers Return.

A spokesman for the soap confirmed Jim McDonald would be back in the soap but declined to comment further.

The Mirror