Coronation Street's Sue Cleaver clarifies future on the soap after months away

Actress Sue Cleaver has been missing from Coronation Street for three months, and now she has finally confirmed when she will be returning to the cobbles as her character Eileen Grimshaw.

Eileen flew off to Thailand in the spring to visit her son Jason (Ryan Thomas), who had been injured in a motorbike accident, and she has been away ever since, although her boyfriend George (Tony Maudsley) recently heard from her when she needed money transferred abroad to pay for Jason’s hospital bill.

The real reason for Eileen’s absence is that Sue Cleaver took a break from the soap to star in the nationwide tour of Sister Act: The Musical. She played Mother Superior, but now Wendi Peters has taken on the role so Sue can return to the cobbles.

In an interview with OK!, Sue said: “I’ve finished Sister Act but I’m missing everybody hugely. I had the most wonderful time doing that show – I hadn’t been on stage for 30 years. I just thought ‘I’m going to embrace this, I’m going to do it’. Even though I was scared and even though it was the unknown, I thought ‘nope, this is fabulous. Let’s just go for this’ and I did.”

She added: “I had the most amazing time. We played to full houses everywhere and had standing ovations. I will miss everybody hugely but you’ve got to finish one thing to start the next thing.”

However, while she loved her time on the stage and would like to return, Sue also confirmed that she is definitely returning to Coronation Street – and fans won’t have long to wait to see Eileen once more.

“I definitely think I'll do more on stage. The stage is where I started. Theatre’s always been my first love. Now I’ve been back, that’s not going to be my last,” she says.

“But I’ll be heading back to Coronation Street soon. I'm having a little holiday and then I will be heading back into Corrie in July so they can see me back there. I will be back.”

Sue, who celebrated her 60th birthday last September, has taken a break from the soap before, to appear in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here in 2022. She returned to Corrie in July last year looking very different following a change to her diet for health reasons that meant she lost weight, causing fans to comment that they barely recognised her.

One wrote on social media: "Wow, Sue Cleaver is looking AMAZING! Give Eileen a big story, please. #corrie."

Another added: "Crikey, I didn’t recognise Eileen for a second there! You look great, @Sue_Cleaver."