Announcements of Coronation Street cast members who are about to leave or who have very recently left have been coming thick and fast recently.
Show legend Gail Platt (Helen Worth) said an emotional goodbye to the cobbles at Christmas, shortly followed by her granddaughter Bethany, as Lucy Fallon takes maternity leave.
Other Weatherfield locals, including Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver), Craig Tinker (Colson Smith) and Yasmeen Nazir (Shelley King) will be bowing out soon, and Charlotte Jordan has revealed that she’ll be leaving the role of Daisy Midgeley to pursue other opportunities.
For Julia Goulding, who plays Shona Platt, sums it up by saying, ‘All my mates are going. Don’t even get me started on Charlie Jordan, I’m furious with her for leaving!’.
But there’s one person Julia says she’ll miss really badly and that’s Paddy Bever, who plays her step-son Max Turner.
Paddy told Corrie bosses a while back that he’d decided to leave, after three years in the role during which Max has been part of a hard-hitting far-right storyline, done time in prison for that and is currently facing prison again for setting fire to number eight.
Max has also been a key part of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton)’s storyline, and was hoping for a future with Lauren and her baby, Frankie.
Currently that seems like an impossible dream as he faces prison – and a possible deadly confrontation with Harvey Gaskell (Will Mellor).
Paddy’s portrayal of the troubled teen has won him awards and accolades and Julia said she’s ‘devastated’ about his departure.
‘I love Paddy so much. I mean, I could actually be his mother, it’s ridiculous!’ she smiled.
‘I think he’s got a bright future ahead of him and I would love to see him, at some point, maybe come back, but I don’t know. I don’t know where his life is going to take him. Really sad, really sad to lose him.’
As Max awaits sentencing, her character is currently fearful for Max’s future as you can see in our spoiler video from this week’s episodes above.
‘I think she’s terrified, because obviously he’s just been to prison. And obviously her own biological son is inside, and potentially to have somebody she loves so much going down as well, I think it’s probably unbearable for her to think about.’
While Paddy is undoubtedly going to be missed, for Julia there’s some compensation in the form of newcomer Farrell Hegarty, who plays Lou Michaelis.
‘We’ve known each other getting on 20 years nearly, I think,’ Julia revealed.
‘She went to drama school with my best friend from Manchester, and then when I lived in London, I went to a different drama school. We were just all a big gang in London. It’s wonderful having her here.’
