'Coronation Street' has come under fire for promoting Flavia Cacace's theatre show.
The ITV soap's plug, a possible breach of broadcast laws, occurred when café owner Roy Cropper (David Neilson) mentioned the former 'Strictly Come Dancing' professional's 'Midnight Tango' production just weeks after her fiance Jimi Mistry signed up to the programme.
Roy was seen telling wife Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh) he had tickets to see the stage show on Monday night's (22.07.13) episode, which aired just one night before the production's five-day run in Manchester, which had tickets still available.
After the episode, Flavia tweeted: "Thank you @itvcorrie for our @VFMidnightTango mention, can't believe it but thank you xx."
Jimi wrote: "Roy is class Lol . Brilliant. (sic)"
Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has strict rules in place about shows advertising products without informing viewers, and 'Corrie' is required to include a letter "P" for product in the opening credits if it wishes to promote a business, but the letter didn't appear last Monday.
However, show bosses insist the reference was merely a coincidence and had nothing to do with Jimi signing up to the soap because the script was penned before he was approached for the programme.
A Corrie spokesman said: "The episode script was written long before Jimi Mistry was even approached.
"It is untrue to suggest there is any connection between the two."
But an industry source told The Sun newspaper: "It does seem an incredible coincidence.
"They clearly plugged a commercial business run by Flavia to more than eight million people, three weeks after her fiancé is announced as a new show character.
"Even if it was by chance, they should have realised there was a clear conflict of interests and re-edited the scene."
This comes after several stars of the show, including Brooke Vincent (Sophie Webster), Catherine Tyldesley (Eva Price) and Georgia May Foote (Katy Armstrong), were recently duped into promoting free gifts - unaware they were from a fake brand.
Tagged in Jimi Mistry Flavia Cacace