To answer Cute Toni, they do it in the soaps with child actors for various reasons. It happens too in American series (the only example which springs to mind is Dianna Durban briefly replacing Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie in Dallas). It doesn't tend to happen much in British soaps; rather the character is written out. I feel that this is a pity, as characters are larger than the person portraying them. When Maggie Jones died I was extremely disappointed to see that the producers of Corrie could not find an actress of sufficient resemblance to take over the role of Blanche. Her character was larger than life and pivotal to many of the comedy moments in the programme.