Coronation Street’s departing star Alison King could go out on top at her last British Soap Awards after making the shortlist as best actress.
The 43-year-old, best known as Corrie’s Carla Connor, is up against EastEnders’ Lacey Turner (Stacey Branning) and Rakhee Thakrar (Shabnam Masood).
Emmerdale’s Lucy Pargeter (Chas Dingle) and Hollyoaks’ Jennifer Metcalfe (Mercedes McQueen) round out the category.
The 18th annual celebration of the nation’s biggest and most-loved continuing dramas will take place later this month at London’s Hackney Empire Theatre.
Alison, who won best actress at the British Soap Awards in 2012, has played troubled resident Carla since 2006.
The 43-year-old has said she only ever planned to be in ITV’s Weatherfield-set soap for four years initially.
She has already filmed the final scenes for her character’s upcoming dramatic exit.
After a tempestuous reign at the Underworld factory, Carla is about to embark on a new life with fiance Nick Tilsley (Ben Price).
The other viewer-voted categories include the main prize: best British soap.
Coronation Street will hope to win the crown from BBC One rival EastEnders, which was last year’s recipient.
The other soaps nominated are BBC One’s Doctors, ITV’s Emmerdale and Channel 4′s Hollyoaks.
In the best actor category, all eyes will be on EastEnders star Danny Dyer.
The 38-year-old has never won a British Soap Award but his role as Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter has already seen him win a National Television Award in January for outstanding serial drama performance.
He picked up the same award last year and was an Inside Soap Award winner for best actor in 2014.
Danny is up against Corrie’s Jack P Shepherd (David Platt), Emmerdale’s Danny Miller (Aaron Livesy) and Hollyoaks duo Charlie Clapham (Freddie Roscoe) and Kieron Richardson (Ste Hay).
Among the categories which will be decided by a panel of experts, best newcomer sees a former winner of The X Factor face-off against a former child star.
Coronation Street star Shayne Ward, who won Simon Cowell’s hit talent show in 2005, has made a telling impact as Carla’s half-brother Aidan Connor.
Shayne, who joined Corrie in 2015, has been awarded with recognition in the British Soap Awards shortlist.
EastEnders’ Bonnie Langford first came to the public’s attention after winning Opportunity Knocks at the age of six in the early 1970s.
She appeared in such vehicles as TV series Just William and popular feature film Bugsy Malone with Jodie Foster and Happy Days’ Scott Baio.
Now playing Carmel Kazemi in the BBC’s Walford-set soap, Langford and Ward will compete against Doctor’s Bharti Patel (Ruhma Hanif), Emmerdale’s Isobel Steele (Liv Flaherty) and Hollyoaks’ Duayne Boachie (Zack Loveday).
Hosted by Phillip Schofield, the British Soap Awards will be broadcast on ITV.
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