FORMER Coronation Street actress Denise Welch has quit her starring role in a pantomime because of ill health, theatre bosses said yesterday.

The North-East actress, who played Rovers Return landlady Natalie Barnes in the soap, is understood to be suffering from exhaustion.

Welch, 46, who is married to Auf Wiedersehen, Pet star Tim Healy, was starring as the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, at the Stockport Plaza, in Cheshire.

She pulled out of the show on Christmas Eve and will not be returning.

Former Brookside actress Barbara Hatwell, who played Anthea Dixon, has taken over the role.

Healey was quoted as saying: "She will be OK, we hope, but she is still very weak. We are all very worried."

Ian Hodgkiss, programme director at the theatre, said: ''We are very worried about Denise and wish her a very speedy recovery and hope she is back in full health very soon."

Welch left Coronation Street on New Year's Eve 2000, while pregnant with her second child. Her most recent TV appearance has been in BBC1 show Down to Earth, playing Ricky Tomlinson's wife.