ITV Coronation Street's Alan Halsall appears in sweet soap throwback as co-star says he loves him on 40th birthday

Coronation Street star Alan Halsall has been reminded of his early years on the cobbles thanks to a throwback photo from his co-star shared to mark his 40th birthday. The actor, who is best known for playing Tyrone Dobbs in the ITV soap, is celebrating the special occasion on holiday with his girlfriend Tisha Merry, daughter Sienna and his family.

On Thursday (August 11), Alan reshared posts from his pals as the birthday messages came flooding in for the Corrie favourite. One of those messages was from Samia Longchambon who celebrated her own 40th birthday last month.

She shared a photo taken at the long-running soap's belated Christmas/spring party earlier this year. It showed the Maria Windass actress sandwiched in between the birthday boy, who she had added a gif of a crown to his head, and on-screen brother Andy Whyment who plays Corrie's Kirk Sutherland.

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"Happy 40th birthday to you @alanhalsall," she penned. "Caught me up," she added with a string of celebratory emojis. But she couldn't resist delving into the archives and headed back to 2000 when Tyrone and Maria had just got engaged when the young mechanic proposed atop Blackpool Tower.

The image Samia, from Eccles, chose showed the pair looking fresh-faced in Roys Rolls as they showed off Maria's engagement ring. "Couldn't not post this little beauty today..." Samia wrote alongside the image. "Have the best day my friend! I [heart emoji] you... here's to the next 40 years of you being a legend."

Andy, who has played cobbles favourite Kirk for 22 years, also got on the throwback train, sharing a selection of snaps to his Instagram page of the pair from