Helen Worth, a veteran actress, will return to Coronation Street for a special occasion exactly a year after leaving the show after 50 years.
Gail Platt, a star of Coronation Street, bid farewell to Weatherfield as she packed her bags for France almost a year ago.
Following her departure last Christmas, we are set to see Helen Worth back on our screens over the festive period as the long-suffering mum makes a surprise Corrie return – although bosses are keeping her involvement in the episode a strict secret.
After a long-running run on the soap dating back to 1974, her exit shocked viewers of the ITV show. When the show’s avid viewers notice the long-served return and the Platt family’s additional issues, she will make a one-time appearance.
Helen loved playing Gail, a character who has had her fair share of drama over the years from multiple marriages, her daughter Sarah’s teenage pregnancy, bitter feuds, and falling for a serial killer. Since she left, the 74-year-old star has been linked with a number of big parts.
As she prepares to return to the streets a year after his departure, we take a look at her off-screen life and what might come next.
strictly complies
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Helen – understood to be a big fan of the BBC show – has been linked since 2024, the year she announced she would be leaving Coronation Street. Fans are hopeful we will still see the star don the sequins when the next line-up is announced.
She would join a long list of former Corrie stars who’ve competed on Strictly, including Tina O’Brien, Catherine Tyldesley, Georgia May Foote, and of course the 2023 winner Ellie Leach.
London’s secret life
Helen was one of the soap’s highest-paid stars because she had worked for Corrie for so long and appeared in more than 3,000 episodes. She reportedly took home a £250,000-a-year salary.
She actually resides in London where she owns a house, rather than living there, where Coronation Street is shot.
Helen, who was raised in Morecambe, Lancashire, enjoys a glitzy life there, making the most of some prestigious hotels and frequently staying in the city, despite being a northern girl at heart. She also has grown up in the city and has grown up there.
Husband’s tragic relationship
Although Helen frequently avoids the spotlight, her personal life was in jeopardy in 1995 when her first husband’s affair was exposed.
Speaking about his infidelity back in 2001, she told The Mirror: “Nothing can ever prepare you for the day your husband sits you down and tells you he is having an affair.
“It was everything to me that my marriage was. Everything else was built on the same foundation as it was. Nearly the entire time, I spent with Michael. Never did I think that our relationship wouldn’t lead to our age. Everything just went into black as he said it.
“Things started to make sense.” Perhaps I just now realized that something similar was going to happen. Although things hadn’t worked out for a while, I didn’t believe it was serious. “
tragedy for a family
Helen’s glittering soap career took off three years after she tragically lost her mother in a hit-and-run accident when the actress was 20 years old. Previously opening up to the Daily Star about her heartache, she shared: “The one person I really wanted to tell when I got the part of Gail was my mother.
Source: Mirror
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