Charlie Lawson fell ill during the opening night of 'Rebus'.

Charlie Lawson

Charlie Lawson

The 'Coronation Street' actor plays the titular inspector in the play at Edinburgh's King's Theatre, but last night (08.10.18) he announced he was feeling faint near the start of the second half of the production.

According to The Scotsman newspaper, Charlie's co-stars helped him from the stage and his understudy Neil McKinven - who had already appeared on stage in other roles - took over for the remainder of the performance.

Author Ian Rankin, who created the 'Inspector Rebus' book series, was in attendance at the sold out theatre to watch the performance, and admitted Charlie put on a "very good Scottish accent".

He also confirmed the 'Corrie' star - who plays Jim McDonald in the ITV soap - had fallen ill during his performance, and praised "heroic" understudy Neil.

Ian wrote on Twitter: "He took ill. Understudy stepped in and was heroic.

"Waiting to hear news. (sic)"

Earlier this morning (09.101.8), Ian told a fan he had yet to hear how Charles is.

He wrote: "No news yet of Charles."

Theatre critic and director Liam Rudden tweeted: "Wishing Charles Lawson a speedy recovery after he had to leave the stage during tonight's performance of #Rebus: Long Shadows at The King's, Edinburgh.

Kudos to Neil McKinven who continued in the title role with book in hand to ensure the tale was resolved.

#ThisIsLiveTheatre (sic)"

Charlie recently revealed Coronation Street' bosses had to "completely rewrite" his comeback storyline because they didn't check how long he was available for.

He claims they wanted him for a year but he had already signed up to 'Rebus'.

Charlie said: "The scheduling didn't work too well. 'Corrie' asked me back for a year but I had accepted 'Rebus' by that point.

"They said, 'What do you mean, no?' when I told them I couldn't do it, so I explained I was doing 'Rebus' and they should have checked earlier.

"There's a general assumption in TV that you are available but that's not the case with me.

"They had to completely rewrite the storyline because I was only available from June to August."