Gail Platt’s fate revealed as Coronation Street legend quits ITV soap after 50 years
Could the return of an ex-husband be the happy ending Gail deserves?
CORONATION Street’s Gail Platt is set to exit the show but bosses say she won’t meet a grisly end.
It was revealed last month that Helen Worth had decided to leave her role as Gail after 50 years.
Coronation Street fans immediately started to speculate how ITV bosses will write her out of the soap.
But producers have now revealed it will be a departure rather than an untimely end for the mother of Sarah, Nick and David.
Helen, 73, first appeared on the show in 1974 – half a century ago – and is one of the soaps longest-serving characters.
Bosses at Corrie have not said when she will depart from the cobbles or how, but have assured fans that she will have a ‘happy ending’ after many years of drama.
Coronation Street’s Executive Producer Iain MacLeod confirmed to the Daily Star’s Hot TV column that; “Gail won’t die. It didn’t feel like killing her off would be right.
“Gail’s exit is a brilliant story, I thought what do viewers want to see?
“Gail has had a hard life. She had a difficult childhood and some disastrous marriages. So, we thought what viewers really want is a happy ending for her, so that’s what we’re doing.”
As Helen prepares for her final scenes, she approves of the scriptwriter’s plans for her departure.
Ian joked: “Helen loves the storyline,” adding: “Recently, she described it by saying, ‘It’s the perfect ending for Gail’, so I can sleep soundly at night.
“You don’t want to inflict an ending on someone after 50 years that they’re not happy with.”
The Sun previously revealed how her exit storyline would see her reunite with former husband, Martin Platt.
Gail’s experiences on the show include her marriages, family feuds, coping with her daughter’s teenage pregnancy, divorces, and discovering unsettling truths about her partners.
She faced challenges like being kidnapped, imprisoned and in unexpectedly difficult situations.
Some of her explosive storylines include marrying Brian Tilsley (Christopher Quinten), before being terrorised by his mother Ivy.
MARRIAGE WOES
She went on to have an affair with Brian’s cousin, Ian Latimer when Brian was killed in a knife attack, and then married the much younger Martin Platt (Sean Wilson).
She has also had to cope with her Sarah falling pregnant at the age of 13 and divorcing Martin after his affair with a colleague.
She hoped for third time lucky when she married Richard Hillman (Brian Capron) but he turned out to be a serial killer who kidnapped her, Sarah, David, and her granddaughter Bethany Platt and driving them all into the canal.
But she escaped the clutches of death to go on to have many more gripping storylines.
FEUDING FAMILIES
Viewers will also remember her feud with Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) after her son Todd (Bruno Langley) came out as gay while dating Sarah.
She threw David out after he hid drugs in Bethany’s toys, but he retaliated by pushing her down the stairs after he discovered she had taken Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan) to a private abortion clinic to terminate a pregnancy fathered by David.
Then she tied the knot with Tina’s father Joe McIntyre (Reece Dinsdale), but was later imprisoned for Joe’s murder when his plan to fake his own life went wrong.
After getting out of jail she jumped into a relationship with Audrey’s ex-partner Lewis Archer (Nigel Havers) only for him to con her out of all her money.
Her fifth husband was the burglar who robbed her home, Michael Rodwell (Les Dennis), but that ended in divorce too.
