Soap fans will bid a tearful farewell to Alma Halliwell this week when the Coronation Street favourite loses her controversial battle against cancer.

But the Telegraph & Argus can exclusively reveal today that there will be life after Alma for actress Amanda Barrie who has been lined up to take lead role in this year's Alhambra pantomime.

It will be a case of, hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work she goes when Alma rises dramatically from the dead to play the Wicked Queen in this year's production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

And the 65-year-old actress will be joined by another Bradford favourite comedian Billy Pearce who will return to the Alhambra for the first time since 1997 when he played Buttons in Cinderella.

This time Billy will be playing another comedy character called Muddles.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, Bradford Council's spokesman for the environment, said: "This year we are delighted the pantomime stars are such household names as Amanda Barrie and Billy Pearce who hold a special place in the hearts of many of our audiences.

"Bradford is now well known for being the home of the best pantomimes in the North, and we hope to build on the tremendous success we enjoyed as a city with Aladdin last year."

Amanda Barrie hit the headlines this week when furious relatives hit out at Coronation Street bosses when they took over a Salford crematorium to film Alma's touching funeral.

Other real services had to be cancelled when Corrie film crews took over the cemetery for the day so that stars including Johnny Briggs, Liz Dawn, and Tracy Shaw could film scenes paying their final respects to the soap stalwart.

Billy Pearce is no stranger to treading the boards in Bradford and his Aladdin panto in 1994, which co-starred another Coronation Street favourite Roy Barraclough, broke box-office records taking more than £960,000.

But Billy and Amanda will have their work cut out to break Cannon and Ball's recent record after 84,000 people turned out to see their version of Aladdin earlier this year - making £1million in ticket sales.

One of Bradford's most famous panto traditions, the Sunbeam dancers, are also set to return in the new production and auditions are planned to be held at Sara Packham Studios, in Oxenhope, later this year.

Tickets for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will go on sale on Wednesday.