Soap actress stars in EastEnders and Coronation Street just half an ...

SOAP fans have been left baffled after an actress appeared in both Coronation Street and EastEnders in the same night just half an hour apart.

Ellena Vincent has signed on to appear in both programmes at the same time which left fans of both shows stunned.

The star has had a busy few weeks after appearing to film her rival roles around similar times.

Ellena has appeared on Coronation Street sporadically over the past few weeks as the secret wife of Joel Deering.

Joel has been hiding the fact that he is secretly married to a mystery woman called Emily from current girlfriend Dee-Dee who he has been seen secretly rowing with as well as spotted in a car with.

The truth soon unravelled when Joel was caught out after Alya rumbled what he was up to.

It forced him to divulge all about the fact that he and Emily had a child together and had been married but he pleaded to Dee-Dee that they had now separated.

On Monday night, viewers saw Emily once again on the ITV soap but those who had tuned into BBC rival EastEnders just half an hour before were left doing a double take having just seen Ellena as Fern, a new love interest for Dean Wicks.

The actress made her BBC debut on Monday where she was seen speaking with Dean Wicks.

Sparks appeared to fly between the two with Dean going on to ponder if anything could happen between the pair.

In scenes still to air later this week, Fern and Dean will enjoy a cosy dinner date with one another as a potential romance begins to sizzle.

Fern is still blissfully unaware of the man that Dean really is and falls for his charming ways.

However, it will not take long for Fern to realise just who she is dating when word about Dean's past gets around.

It is not confirmed if either roles are permanent for the star however it seems unlikely that she will be hanging around in either soap for too long with contracts often preventing permanent cast from appearing in a rival programme.