ITV Coronation Street star’s heartbreaking three-word plea to Helen Worth over exit

There was an emotional plea from one Coronation Street star to another, as a soap legend prepared to bow out of the ITV soap.

Helen Worth was announced to be leaving the role of Gail Platt after 50 years in a statement released earlier this year. But as it came to her final day on set, her co-star of 25 years Jack P Shepherd had one request for her before she left.

With Helen wanting to flee the set “quietly” without a fuss, Jack, who has played her onscreen son David Platt since 2000, asked her to let Corrie’s cast and crew say a proper goodbye. Jack told The Mirror that hundreds of people working on the set wanted to be there for her final scene, and to bid her farewell.

Knowing Helen would not be keen, he approved the gesture before telling Helen: “It’s for everyone.” The moving three-word plea encouraged Helen to say her goodbyes, and allow those who wanted to be there to see the final scenes.

He told us: “There were people on other units and other blocks and everything who were watching all the monitors and were saying it was really nice. [The studio] was full. So there was about 400 or 500 people in the studio.

“They all came down. And Lee, the first Assistant Director, came up to me and he went, ‘What do you want to do? Because I’ve got every unit saying that they want to break and they all want to come in and say goodbye’.

“And he went, ‘If I ask her she’ll say no so what should we do?’. I said, ‘Ah, just f***ing do it. Just do it’. She’ll cry. She’ll be emotional. But you’re meant to. It’s 50 years.” On Helen hoping to leave without a fuss, Jack told us: “She wanted to do the back door. Didn’t want to create a fuss for people. I said, it’s not so much for you, it’s for the building. It’s for everyone.”

Jack also sparked a last-minute change to Helen’s final ever filmed scene as Gail. With the show filming out of chronological order, Helen’s last moments filming in the role were not her actual exit scenes.

So when Jack realised what had been written for her, he knew he had to change it. He demanded a rewrite, needing a scene with the entire Platt family after realising just he and Julia Goulding (Shona Platt) would feature in Helen’s final take.

Soon enough the writers took action, and with a slight change to the filming schedule all of the cast were able to be there. Jack explained: “Her last scene filming was a scene with me and Julia. It was in the Platts.

“That was her last scene, and I went, no, no, her last scene has to be all of us. We all have to be there. They said there wasn’t one where you’re all together, and so I went, ‘well f***ing write it! Write it! You know, you can.’

“So they went, yeah, we can, and they did. They wrote one. [I just wanted to] make sure we’re all together in the Platts when she finally goes. Don’t just have someone random with her or whatever. So they did. And luckily, they were able to do it and schedule it.”