Coronation Street's Helen Worth quits soap after 50 years as Gail Platt
Coronation Street's executive producer Iain Macleod says the viewers will miss Gail Platt on the cobbles.
Coronation Street star Helen Worth has announced she is leaving the show after 50 years.
The actress plays Gail Platt and has been at the centre of some of the show's most high-profile storylines and controversies over the last half a century.
Worth, who joined the cast in 1974, says she has made the "difficult decision" to take a step back from the world's longest running soap at the end of 2024.
It comes as the 73-year-old prepares to celebrate her golden anniversary on the Corrie cobbles next month.
Helen said: “This year felt like the perfect time to leave the show after celebrating 50 years in the most wonderful job on the most wonderful street in the world.
"I made the decision at the start of the year and spoke to the producers who were very kind and understanding.
“I have been truly blessed to have been given the most incredible scripts week in week out, and to have worked with fantastic actors, directors and a brilliant crew.
“The past 50 years have flown by and I don't think the fact that I am leaving has quite sunk in yet.”
Gail holds the Coronation Street record of ’most married-female', having walked down the aisle six times.
She made her mark in one of the most controversial stories of the show when her 13-year-old daughter Sarah became pregnant in 1999.
Other memorable storylines include her marriage to serial killer Richard Hillman and being imprisoned for the murder of her husband at the time Joe McIntyre.
Now, half a century since she first walked onto the cobbles, viewers will see Helen and Gail bid farewell to Weatherfield in a major storyline for the Platt family.
Helen, who was born in Ossett, West Yorkshire, will start filming her exit story next month and the emotional scenes will be on screen at the end of the year.
Executive Producer Iain Macleod said: “The words ‘legend’ and ‘icon’ get used a lot these days but they genuinely do apply to Gail and to Helen Worth. However, given her humility, I know Helen won’t thank me for saying so!
"In Helen’s hands, Gail has been a huge part of Coronation Street for five decades and at the centre of some of the most memorable storylines - often deriving from her catastrophically bad luck in choosing husbands!
“Her ill-fated marriage to Richard Hillman was one of the most ground-breaking stories in soap history and cemented Gail’s already established status as one of the Corrie greats.
"As the matriarch of the Platt clan, her affectionately prickly relationships with her kids and flighty mum Audrey epitomise what makes the show great: complicated family dynamics brought to life impeccably by Helen’s dramatic and comedic chops, alongside those of her fictional clan.
“Gail has given us countless hours of entertainment but it should also be said that Helen herself is a consummate professional and a thoroughly good egg.
"Everyone connected to the show will miss having her around the place just as much as the viewers will miss having her on their screens and we wish her all the very best for the future.”
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