Former Dream Team babe Alison King has joined the cast of Britain's most famous street.

The 33-year-old actress – who played Linda Block in the now-axed Sky One football drama – is to appear on the Cobbles as Carla Connor, wife of Paul Connor (Sean Gallagher).

Of the new signing, a Coronation Street spokeswoman said: "She will make quite an impact. The phrase ‘dosh doesn’t make you posh’ was made for Carla. She’s a WAG on the cobbles, beautiful, but tough and ambitious.

"She has designs on launching her own range of kids’ clothing and sees her hubby’s investment in Underworld as a way of getting her business off the ground, introducing a new level of gritty intrigue and spice to the factory."

Coincidentally, Alison has appeared in Corrie on two other occasions – two years ago as a love interest of Jason Grimshaw (Ryan Thomas) and previously in 1982 as a child. Her other connection with the ITV soap is that she is the ex-girlfriend of Phil Middlemiss, who played Des Barnes in the soap between 1990 and 1998.

Alison starts filming mid-October and will be on-screen from the beginning of December.