Coronation Street's Colson Smith says 'goodbye' as he returns to UK after I'm A Celebrity stint

Coronation Street star Colson Smith has been flooded with messages from fans as he said 'goodbye' in his latest social media post. The actor was seen returning to work on the cobbles following his recent trip to Australia.

Colson, who is famed for playing Craig Tinker in the ITV soap, ditched the UK earlier this month and followed his co-star Alan Halsall Down Under.

While Alan, famed for playing Weatherfield's Tyrone Dobbs for 26 years, has entered the I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here camp as one of this year's campmates, Craig Tinker actor Colson has been dishing out his thoughts and inside gossip on Alan on the ITV reality show's spin-off, I'm A Celebrity... Unpacked.

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He was seen close to the I'm A Celeb jungle, making nightly appearances on the live spin-off show, I'm A Celebrity: Unpacked, alongside show hosts Joel Dommett, Sam Thompson and Kemi Rodgers.

Colson's stint on the show then came to an end at the end of last week and he has been seen battling his jet lag amid his return to work at Corrie's Trafford-based set.

The soap star took to Instagram with a new video to reveal he was back on the Corrie set, ready to get back into filming but it means Colson required a transformation as his latest look didn't match that of his on-screen alter-ego and he confirmed to his followers he needed to shave his beard off.

While admitting he hadn't slept as a result of jet lag, Colson also said that "it is time for me to get ready to be PC Craig Tinker which means the beard has got to go, we’re back to the baby face copper". He goes on to film himself shaving his beard off over a sink using an electric razor.

At the end, a smoothed-face Colson appear on camera and he jokingly called himself a "mole rat", but branded Craig the "finest copper in all the land". Captioning the post on Instagram, the 26-year-old wrote: "GOODBYE BEARD, HELLO CRAIGY T."

And some fans were sad to see the beard gone. @lamberttrudi said: "I liked the stubbly beard, get them to write it into the script," but Colson replied: "Craig isn’t enough of a man to grow a beard." @martynbenn72 commented: "I prefer stubble but I always gorgeous."

@mumbiggs wrote: "Prefer the stubble … let Craigy grow up and give him some stubble or a beard…" @luscious_lakeram posted: "Oh no, I love the beard." @moderngirl84 replied: "They should let Craig have a bit of a beard too!" @shell_oxo1982 aded: "Prefer the stubble but still gorgeous. Good to see you back on the cobbles last night!"