Coronation Street actress Julie Goodyear, better known as barmaid Bet Lynch, has been diagnosed with exhaution just weeks after re-joining the soap.

Producers are re-arranging filming schedules after she was reported to have collapsed.

Bet Lynch was a mainstay of the Rovers

The star, 57, only returned to filming at the start of May after seven years out of the show.

Before that, she had played the barmaid with a taste for big earrings and leopard-print clothes for 25 years.

Doctor's note

She is likely to take about a week off filming, and script-writers were understood to be deciding whether to change the story.

"Julie is off. She has given us a doctor's note and we wish her a speedy recovery," a spokeswoman for the show said.

Goodyear felt unwell while at home in Heywood, Lancashire, and was diagnosed with exhaustion.

She had also recently been touring with a production of La Cage Aux Folles.

When Goodyear returned to the hit show, she said she had gone back for a 12-month stint because the producer was "very persuasive".

Five episodes

"I can tell you for a fact it wasn't the bloody money," she said.

"When you compare it to Dallas, Dynasty or footballers' wages, it's not much.

"I never asked to come back, I would never, ever, have asked for the job back, but the producer is very, very persuasive."

Goodyear said she would feature in all of the first five episodes after her shock return on 10 June.

Street party

"I think, and I'm sure viewers would agree, comedy was one of the Street's strengths and they obviously felt that I could be a part of helping to bring that back."

Goodyear said she was pleased the barmaid had kept her outrageous style.

"I think leopard has always been part of the character since the early 70s so I think it would have been silly really to take that away," she said.

The character is returning to the Street to attend Betty Williams's retirement party.