Comedy will abound like a king-size Peter Kay duvet when Sir Ian McKellan (DVDS/Books) breaks wind in the face of all Coronation Street’s current suicide misery in May.

That his character, novelist Mel Hutchwright, is described as ‘hilarious’ is a bit of a worry mind. That’s like someone being referred to as ‘cool’ or ‘a bit hard’. It’s normally only indicative of the opposite. Phil ‘heartburn’ Mitchell being a case in point. Though McKellan is a decent actor, if he’s wearing a giant white beard or not, so all signs are pointing to ‘promising’.

In a day of decidedly silly plots Coronation Street have done nothing to buck the trend.

Bonkers Blanche (Maggie Jones) writes to a publishing company to find out whether or not her favourite author (that’s Mel) is a woman or a man. He turns up to say hello – as you do, moves in with Emily (Eileen Derbyshire) and Norris (Malcolm Hebden) – as you shouldn’t do, and Bob’s your uncle, we’re off for another nine episodes of Gandalf comedy bronze.

Ian McKellan is apparently fulfilling his last ambition by appearing in Coronation Street. Obviously he’s mental, but we’re all gonna tune in just the same.

The producers attempting to get a book called Hard Grinding (that’s not about DIY) on telly before the watershed is going to be a feat worth watching in itself. We can only imagine what the front cover looks like.

Click here to check out Ian McKellan in his full Mel Hutchwright get up.

If we say ‘dodgy bloke in the post office’ we know you’ll understand what we mean.

[story by Chris Laverty]