IT IS about as unlikely a location to be at the centre of a celebrity drugs scandal as you could possibly imagine.

People in the sleepy Hampshire village of Old Bursledon woke today to find that they were caught up in a crack cocaine expose alleged to have involved one of its most famous residents.

However villagers, including his hairdresser, were rallying around 41-year-old actor Craig Charles, pictured, who plays loveable cabbie Lloyd Mullaney in the nation's favourite TV soap.

Craig has been suspended from Coronation Street in the wake of tabloid revelations claiming that he smoked the class A substance.

Yesterday there was no sign of the star at his imposing mansion home, high on a hill in Station Road. Overlooking one of the most expensive stretches of the River Hamble, it is estimated to be valued at more than £1m.

It is close to the setting of that other famous soap, Howard's Way, the Dallas-By-Sea blockbuster which was centred on the Elephant Boatyard.

Residents in the leafy lanes of Old Bursledon, where roses grow round cottage doors and lawns are neatly manicured, were unaware of this real life soap star drama played out in seven pages of a national newspaper.

Some were surprised that a Corrie star was one of their neighbours, while others said that they had been on friendly nodding terms when they spotted the actor walking through the village.

Yesterday the only sign of activity outside the star's home was a man pushing a wheelbarrow, and a woman walking along the lane towards the sprawling property.

At the famous Jolly Sailor pub they were giving the controversy a wide berth and refusing to comment.

In Lowford, where the actor is a popular customer at the village's barber shop, hairdresser Nigel Fern was full of praise for his celebrity client.

Nigel, 50, said: "He has been in here a few times for a trim.

"Craig is very down-to-earth and does not act like the big soap star. He is a typical Liverpudlian and loves a good laugh.

"He moved into the village a couple of years ago and has settled in well. He has made a lot of friends and mixes well with the locals.

"He is very family orientated and you always see him with his wife and kids in a big 4X4."

In a statement the makers of Coronation Street said: "Following allegations in the press actor Craig Charles has been suspended from his role in Coronation Street with immediate effect, pending further investigations by the company."