Coronation Street and TV legend John Thomson, 55, is ready to venture back out into the world of dating, but he’s already hit a setback.

The actor, who starred as Jesse Chadwick in the ITV soap, has been single for a year, following a break-up from his partner of five years.

‘I’m recently single, last year. I’ve been a year single. It’s hard, really tough,’ he confessed on the We’re Not Getting Any Younger podcast.

‘We move on. It was five years that relationship so it took it out of me. I’ve given it a year so I’m single and just about ready to mingle. Five years is a long time.’

Now, John feels ready to start dating again, but his attempts to join celebrity dating app Raya have been unsuccessful.

An exclusive club

Launched in 2015, Raya is an exclusive dating app that caters to celebrities – and the waiting list for a profile contains hundreds of thousands of people.

One of its users recently told Metro that, despite having five referrals from Raya users – which are vital in getting accepted because it shows you move in the right social circles – he was on the waiting list for months.

It is on this waiting list that John currently finds himself, as he explained.

‘I would go on a dating app, but Raya won’t have me. You know it’s celebs date celebs, they won’t go near me. I’m on a waiting list, I’ve got 15 referrals and they still won’t have me. I’d like to date people in the industry.’

It seems the odds are stacked against the Cold Feet star, as reportedly only 8% of Raya applicants are accepted, meaning you’re twice as likely to get accepted to Oxford University than you are to the dating site.

John’s recent Cobbles return

John’s character Jesse made an unexpected return to the cobbles of Coronation Street last year, as part of Gail Platt’s (Helen Worth) exit story.

It was revealed that Jesse and Gail had reconnected in Thailand and had been secretly seeing each other.