Former Coronation Street writer Daran Little has confessed he no longer watches the show having defected to EastEnders 15 years ago. He also snubbed one of the current stars of the show by admitting he has "no idea" who she is. The 58-year-old BAFTA winning writer was tagged in a post on X on Tuesday marking the birthday of Dolly Rose Campbell, 38, who plays Gemma Winter-Brown on the long running ITV soap. "No idea why I’m being tagged in this. I haven’t watched the show for 15 years and have no idea who this actress is, but hope she has a nice birthday," he penned.

Expanding on his admission that he no longer watches the show he also revealed Coronation Street bosses banned him from watching rival BBC soap EastEnders during his time working on the show. "Since people seem so interested in my viewing habits: up to 1985 just Coronation Street. 1985-1988 both Coronation Street & EastEnders. 88 started on Coronation Street, stopped watching EastEnders as Coronation Street bosses told me to. 2010 left Coronation Street, started on EastEnders so for past 15 years just watch EastEnders no Coronation Street. I only intend to watch EastEnders in future," he clarified.

In another post he clarified the reason for his lack of knowledge about Gemma's identity "Can I be clear. Since 2010 when I started writing EastEnders I have not watched a single episode of Coronation Street.

"I keep in contact with old friends - writers and actors - but don’t know any who started in the last 15 years. The Street I knew is in the past," he wrote.

Asked why he hadn't watched the show he worked on for over two decades Daran admitted he simply wants to "focus" on the show he currently works on.

"I haven’t watched Hollyoaks since I left that either. When I work on a soap I focus on that show. I’ve never watched Emmerdale cos I’ve never worked on it," he revealed.

Daran began his career on Coronation Street as an archivist and has written 11 books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the show and its characters. He also co-wrote Betty Driver's autobiography, which was released in 2000.

Prior to departing the show in 2006 he wrote 95 episodes of the soap and was responsible for introducing the first gay character, Todd Grimshaw - originally played by Bruno Langley and now played by Gareth Pierce.

He also created the popular characters Sean Tully (played by Antony Cotton), Archie Shuttleworth (played by Roy Hudd) and Bev Unwin (played by Susie Blake) to name just a few.

He also famously invested Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) Grasmere Drive address on the show and recently described the decision to axe it as "outrageous".