Coronation Street's Jack P Shepherd 'in tears' over Helen Worth's exit after 50 years
They’ve played mother and son for 25 years but now Jack P Shepherd is ready to say goodbye to the woman he calls Mum on Coronation Street, Helen Worth. After an incredible 50 years playing Gail Platt, Helen is leaving and actor Jack, who first starred as David Platt aged 12 in April 2000, made sure she got a fitting send off, both on screen and off screen. Although Corrie fans will be saying their goodbyes on Christmas Day, Helen's final scenes were filmed weeks before and there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
After the emotional goodbye in front of the cameras, the cast had an after party in Nick’s Bistro where Helen’s on screen children Jack, Ben Price, and Tina O’Brien delivered a speech that had the whole room in tears. "We gave a little speech, and that made us all cry. it was lovely."
Jack reveals humble Helen, who announced her decision to leave the soap earlier this year, didn’t want a fuss, but he assured her: “It’s not so much for you. It’s for the building. It’s for everyone.”
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Reminiscing on David’s one on one goodbye scene with Gail, Jack reveals it was so emotional that he told the director he “couldn’t do it”. He teases that fans should prepare for some tear jerking scenes as David, Nick (Ben Price) and Sarah (Tina O’Brien) all have their own emotional scenes with their mother to say goodbye separately.
“Even in rehearsals I couldn’t do it because I knew I only had one take at it, and then there’ll be tears and there won’t be anything else left,” he recalls.
Jack can't gush enough about how close the Platts are in real life. So much, so, the star 'took control' of the final scenes Helen filmed on set. “Her last scene filming was with me and Julia in the Platts,” Jack explains. “And I said, ‘No no, the last scene she films has to be with all the Platts.’” To his surprise, Jack was told there wasn’t a scene written where the family were all together. “Well f******g write one!” says Jack, laughing as he recalls his conversation with producers.
“Luckily they were able to do it and schedule it so we were all together, and every unit broke,” he explains. “It was very emotional for the whole building. There were 500 people in the studio who came down to say goodbye, I’ve never seen that before.”
