âCoronation Streetâ actor Helen Worth is leaving her role as the Platt family matriarch after 50 years on Britainâs longest-running television show.
âThis 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,â the 73-year-old actor said in a statement from network ITV. âI made the decision at the start of the year and spoke to the producers who were very kind and understanding.â
As filming begins on her final scenes as Gail Rodwell, ITV called Worthâs upcoming departure âa major storyline for the Platt family.â Those scenes will air this fall.
Worthâs decades-long tenure on the show â on which she started as the character Gail Potter and by marriage ran through the surnames Tilsley, Platt, Hillman, McIntyre and Rodwell â has run more than 4,450 episodes. Gail saw âCoronation Streetâ through some of its most exciting and controversial plotlines.
The actorâs first years on the show featured Gailâs messy teen years, including losing her virginity to a married man. In 1998, âCoronation Streetâ viewers were introduced to Hayley Cropper, the first transgender character ever to appear on British television. That was topped in 2000 by backlash when Gailâs daughter, 13-year-old Sarah Louise Platt, became pregnant. Gailâs marital mishaps even sparked a power surge when a record 17 million fans tuned in to watch her homicidal husband Richard Hillman (Brian Capron) commit murder.
Worthâs career was a lauded one â she received a lifetime achievement honor at the 2014 British Soap Awards and was nominated for a âmust-see momentâ BAFTA in 2019. Executive producer Ian Macleod called Worthâs âCoronation Streetâ performance âlegend,â adding that she had thoroughly cemented herself as âone of the Corrie greats.â
âGail has given us countless hours of entertainment,â Macleod said in ITVâs statement. âEveryone connected to the show will miss having her around the place just as much as the viewers will miss having her on their screens.â
Hundreds of fans flocked to the comments on an Instagram post bidding the star farewell to share their heartfelt surprise and sadness. âCorrie without Gail isâŠincomprehensible. Surely this calls for a national bank holiday?â one user asked.
Some lamented character Gailâs five marriages, all of which ended in divorce or death. âLet her finally have a happy ending, please!â a fan urged the network.
A day prior to Worthâs news, actor Alex Bain announced on the âCoronation Streetâ Instagram that he would be leaving the show after 16 years in the role of Simon Barlow.
Fans shared how âCoronation Streetâ had stayed with them over generations as they faithfully watched actors like Bain onscreen.
âHe came on the show when I was 13, now Iâm 28,â a fan wrote. Bainâs castmate Jane Danson commented that it was the âend of an era.â
Meanwhile, Worth expressed a sense of disbelief that her half-century run was nearing its end.
âI 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,â she said in the statement. âThe past 50 years have flown by and I donât think the fact that I am leaving has quite sunk in yet.â