The casts of Coronation Street and Emmerdale will reportedly be given three months' worth of full pay despite production shutting down last month.

All UK soaps have now stopped filming new episodes due to the coronavirus outbreak and with no sign of production resuming soon, all are likely to drop off the air in early summer once already-recorded episodes have been broadcast.

According to The Sun, ITV has taken the decision to support its soap actors through the coronavirus lockdown and will honour their wages in full until at least June, despite them not being in work.

A spokeswoman told the newspaper: "Coronation Street and Emmerdale have reached an agreement with Equity to provide financial security for regular cast members for the next three months. The specific details of this agreement will remain private as this is a contractual matter."

A source added: "The stars have been told that they will be looked after and their contracts will be honoured no matter how many episodes they do or don't appear in during the shutdown.

"Obviously if someone has an agreement to appear in 100 episodes but they only get to act in 50 during because of the break this would have a massive impact on their earning power so the cast members are relieved that ITV will honour the payments."

Both Corrie and Emmerdale have been cut down to three episodes a week in order to keep the shows on air for as long as possible.