Corrie's Jack P Shepherd demands changes to Gail's final scenes for heartbreaking reason
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.
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. “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. “Just make sure we’re all together in the Platts for when she finally goes,” and so they did.
“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.”
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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.”
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."
David and Gail haven’t had the easiest of relationships over the decades. In 2008 David pushed his mother down the stairs after finding out she'd been involved in his then girlfriend Tina McIntyre’s (Michelle Keegan) secret abortion. Despite the attempted murder of Gail, fans have seen many heartwarming moments between the two, and fans can prepare to see more as they say one final goodbye.
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.
A professional until the end, Jack laughs that all Helen worried about was getting her lines right, as he recalls telling her at the time: “It doesn’t matter, say whatever you want!”
However, Jack says David “would have had more of a breakdown” about his mum leaving if his mind wasn’t pre-occupied elsewhere. It’s been a tumultuous month for David. His stepson Max Turner ended up behind bars after his false confession to the murder of Joel Deering to cover up for his girlfriend Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) before the truth was revealed. However, there was rage from Max when it was discovered David had sparked Lauren's downfall by handing over the incriminating letter which detailed the teens' cover-up plan.
Elsewhere, Gail’s romantic curse has passed down to her son, as his marriage with current wife Shona (Julia Goulding) is on the brink of collapse.
David secretly intercepted prison visitation orders from Shona’s son Clayton, who brutally murdered his first wife Kylie. While he was there, David told Clayton his mother wanted nothing to do with him, despite him revealing his deepest regrets for killing Kylie. Days later, Shona received a call explaining her son was in hospital after trying to take his own life, leaving David wracked with guilt.
The betrayal devastated Shona. In her heartbreak she slept with Kit Green (Jacob Roberts). David has yet to find out, but having played the hot headed hairdresser for 25 years Jack has a pretty clear idea how he’ll react if the truth comes out.
“He'll react in a way where he'll have to try and get his own back somehow, and he'll have to try and do it in a clever way. With him being 6 feet taller than David, he won't be able to take him on physically,” Jack laughs. “It'll have to be something mentally. He'll do something to f***k his life up somehow.”
David and Shona began their relationship in 2017, but it wasn’t until after they’d fallen in love that he made the shock discovery that she was Clayton’s estranged mother. “I think he’s kind of p****d off with himself that he fell in love with her in the first place because she’s the mother of the boy that killed his wife. It’s the sleeping giant that won’t go away.”
David’s life continues to be full of chaos, although Jack reveals how much he loves playing the troubled character. “He always cracks under pressure. He looks like he’s got it together and then he does something extreme. It always seems like he’s completely normal, he’s just having a laugh, Then, as soon as something threatens his family, he goes hell-bent psycho. I like playing that, it means I can dip in and out of the two, and neither are out of character.”
