ITV Coronation Street and The Games: Real life of Colson Smith - incredible weight loss, co-star 'dad' and other jobs

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Coronation Street's Colson Smith will be on TV double-time this week as he won't just be appearing in the ITV soap. The actor, best known for playing Craig Tinker, has spent weeks travelling between Manchester and London as he trained for The Games.

The new show begins on Monday night (May 9) and sees 12 celebrities - including Colson - battle it out in a sporting spectacular event across a week of live programmes. The stars have been trained and coached for the events including diving and weight lifting.

But it all comes down to the live show where the celebrities will rack up points and at the end of the competition, the contestants that receive the most points will be awarded either a gold, silver or bronze medal with one male champion and one female crowned the winners of The Games.

READ MORE: ITV Emmerdale's April makes way onto cobbles as she joins lookalike Coronation Street siblings

Meanwhile, in Corrie, Colson's character received some shocking news last week. Fans of the ITV soap recently saw Craig and girlfriend Faye Windass, played by Ellie Leach, excitedly sharing the news they were to become parents.

However, after Faye feared she was suffering a miscarriage, she was dealt the heartbreaking news that there wasn't and baby and she was never pregnant. Then, in scenes aired last week, Faye discovered she was going through the early menopause and won't be able to have any more biological children leaving her and Craig crushed.

With lots going on for Colson, we thought we'd take a look at his off-screen life, from his incredible weight loss journey to some of the jobs he has away from the cobbles - including as a farmer.

Starting with the latter, the soap star took a break from Corrie last year to work as a