‘I couldn’t do it’: Jack P Shepherd’s emotional reaction to filming final Gail scene in Coronation Street

Christmas Day 2024 marks the end of an era in Coronation Street, as legendary star Helen Worth plays out her final scenes as one of the most beloved and recognisable characters in soap history, Gail Platt.

When Helen announced that she planned to leave the show, the producers and writers were tasked with coming up with a fitting exit for such an iconic character. ‘We thought what viewers really want is a happy ending for her, so that’s what we’re doing,’ Iain MacLeod said. ‘It’s the perfect ending for Gail.’

Gail had planned a wedding and new life with Jesse Chadwick (John Thomson), but that’s currently in the balance after recent revelations, with viewers waiting to see if Gail will decide to stake her future on Jesse or head off alone.

But either way, she will be leaving – and co-star Jack P Shepherd, who has played Gail’s son David Platt since 2000, when he was 12 years old, found filming his final scenes with Helen hugely emotional.

‘I think we all were emotional, me, Tina [O’Brien] and Ben [Price],’ he admitted. ‘I think we all had our own emotional scenes with her separately. I think there’s this thing where she comes to each of us in separate scenes and basically gives us a farewell.’

The scene where David had to say goodbye to his mum was incredibly difficult for Jack as he knew there would only be one chance for him to play the scene out before he was overcome with emotion.

‘Even in rehearsals, I couldn’t really run it, couldn’t really do it, because I know I’ve only got one go at it,’ he said. ‘I’ve only got one take and then there’ll be tears and there won’t be anything else left, so I couldn’t really run the lines.’

Jack spoke to the episode’s director, John Anderson, about how he was feeling.

‘I said, “John, I can’t do it. It’s me saying goodbye to Helen, it’s Helen saying goodbye to me after 25 years, so I’m only probably going to have one take in me or something.”’

Meanwhile he revealed that Helen, ever the professional, was ‘just worried about getting the lines right.’

In the end, the emotion everyone was feeling was captured in the scene and it was a special moment on the Corrie set.

‘There were people on other units and other blocks and everything who were watching all the monitors and suddenly they were saying it was really nice. And it is nice,’ Jack said.

He also revealed that the last scene Helen filmed was specially written to make sure it included the whole Platt family.

‘Her last scene filming was [supposed to be] a scene with me and Julia [Goulding]. It was in the Platts. And I went, “No, no, her last scene has to be just all of us. We all just have to be in the Platts.” They said there isn’t one. I went, “Well write it. You know you can.” So they did.

‘They wrote one. I said, “We don’t have to be doing anything. We can be all not speaking. Just make sure we’re all together in the Platts for 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.’

As filming on the scene concluded, everyone filming on other sets stopped what they were doing to go and say goodbye to Helen.

‘There were about four or five hundred people in the studio. Basically they all came down,’ Jack recalled. He knew that Helen didn’t want a fuss, but it was important for everyone else to give her a good send-off.

‘She wanted to go out of the back door, didn’t want to create a fuss for people,’ he said. ‘And I said, “It’s not so much for you. It’s not you doing the fanfare, the big farewell. It’s for the building. It’s for everyone.”’

Jack knew how Helen would react to this huge outpouring of love from her colleagues.

‘She’ll cry. She’ll be emotional. But that’s the thing – you’re meant to be,’ he said. ’50 years…’