The cast of Coronation Street are excitedly promoting the 2024 National Television Awards – which take place in London tonight.

The glitzy ceremony will be broadcast from the O2 Arena in the capital where the biggest names of the small screen will battle it out for top

prizes. Corrie’s cast will be attending en masse as their iconic show is up for one of the biggest awards of the night – Best Serial Drama.

Ahead of the ceremony, one cast member shared an epic throwback snap of himself from his early days on the cobbles when he was just a boy. Wearing a school uniform – complete with the distinctively bleak, yet traditional, British grey jumper – the then-child star looked thrilled to be holding one of the impressive NTA awards.

Taking to social media, the soap actor amused his fans by sharing his old photo – and fans were left stunned by how much he has changed over the decades. He also wrote a short and to-the-point caption alongside the throwback snap.

Colson Smith has starred on Coronation Street since he was 12 ( Image: Instagram)

The actor plays Craig Tinker on the ITV soap ( Image: Getty Images)

The star wrote: “WHAT DAY IS IT? NTA DAY” – alongside two shades wearing smiley face emojis. The actor in question is, of course, 26-year-old Colson Smith – who has played Craig Tinker on the ITV soap since 2011. He was just 12-years-old when he first appeared on the show – and fans were astonished by his old snap.

The official Coronation Street Instagram account reacted to the post by stating: “Incredible” alongside a crying-with-laughter emoji. Fellow star Ellie Leach, who played Faye Windass on the soap from 2011 and 2023, wrote: “get it girl” alongside a manicure emoji.

Colson was quick to interact with some fans who responded to his message. One wrote: “Awe look how young you were,” and the TV star humorously replied to say: “This was taken this morning.”

Craig looked very different in his unearthed snap ( Image: colsonjsmith/Instagram)

Other fans took to the comments to share words of affection, with one writing: “Haven’t changed a bit, doing a great job.” Another commented: “Oh just look at you.” And a further fan typed: “Oh bless look at little you.”

Some fans were astonished to realise that Colson had been in the long-running soap for so long. One fan wrote in reply to remark: “Oh wow, didn’t realise you were that young when you started. Well done.” And a further fan wrote in disbelief: “Stop it @colsonjsmith , that’s never you?!”

Coronation Street is tied with EastEnders at the 2024 awards as both soaps have the most awards to win, nominated for three gongs each. The ITV soap itself is up for the best Serial Drama award alongside EastEnders – and they will battle against the BBC’s Casualty, ITV’s other soap, Emmerdale, and the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.

David Neilson, who plays Roy Cropper on Corrie, and Peter Ash, who plays Paul Foreman, are both nominated in the best Serial Drama Performance category alongside EastEnders stars Angela Wynter and Diane Parish, who play Yolande Trueman and Denise Fox respectively, and Eden Taylor-Draper, who plays Belle King on Emmerdale.