Vauxhall Corsa rev meter stops working

Recenly within the last month my 2001 corsa has been playing up. The rev meter just suddenly drops down to zero while driving and the engine juders for a second or two (the whole car shakes indicating engine may just conk out at any minute), very worried as its happening very often. The service lights comes on when this happens or sometimes a different light to appears, not sure what its called but defiently indicating that there is a problem. Would like to try and sort this problem out ourselvses before the car breaks down on the way to work. Some times I turn the engine off and then back on again but the rev counter still stays at zero after restarting it along with the lights. Hope someone can help, thanks.