Coronation Street’s David Platt actor Jack P Shepherd shared his tears over Helen Worth’s final day on set as Gail Platt, and how he made writers re-write her last scene
There were tears on set, last-minute alterations and a sweet gesture for Coronation Street icon Helen Worth, as she filmed her final scenes as Gail Platt recently.
The ITV soap legend bowed out to quite a crowd, as her co-stars had one final surprise for their beloved onscreen matriarch. After bosses vowed not to let Helen or Gail go quietly after 50 years in the role, Helen didn’t get the chance to sneak out like she’d planned.
Ahead of her Christmas Day exit, with a big wedding and lots of bombshells teased, Helen faced all kinds of drama, the good kind, as she headed to the famous studios one last time. Most of this was down to her onscreen son Jack P Shepherd, who plays David Platt.
The pair have shared the screen for more than 20 years, making it difficult for the actor to say goodbye both onscreen and off it. Speaking to The Mirror, Jack revealed he sparked a last-minute change to Helen’s final ever filmed scene as Gail. With the show filming out of chronological order, Helen’s last moments filming in the role were not her actual exit scenes.
So when Jack realised what had been written for her, he knew he had to change it. He demanded a rewrite, needing a scene with the entire Platt family after realising just he and Julia Goulding (Shona Platt) would feature in Helen’s final take.
Soon enough the writers took action, and with a slight change to the filming schedule all of the cast were able to be there. Jack explained: “Her last scene filming was a scene with me and Julia. It was in the Platts.
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There were tears on set, last-minute alterations and a sweet gesture for Coronation Street icon Helen Worth (
Image:
ITV)
“That was her last scene, and I went, no, no, her last scene has to be all of us. We all have to be there. They said there wasn’t one where you’re all together, and so I went, ‘well f***ing write it! Write it! You know, you can.’
“So they went, yeah, we can, and they did. They wrote one. [I just wanted to] make sure we’re all together in the Platts 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.”
That wasn’t the only surprise for Helen though, as ITV cast and crew working on the show made sure they were able to be there for when they called ‘cut’. Jack explained: “There were people on other units and other blocks and everything who were watching all the monitors and were saying it was really nice.
“[The studio] was full. So there was about 400 or 500 people in the studio. They all came down. And Lee, the first Assistant Director, came up to me and he went, ‘What do you want to do? Because I’ve got every unit saying that they want to break and they all want to come in and say goodbye’.
Jack and co-star Julia Goulding filming for Gail’s wedding (
Image:
ITV)
“And he went, ‘If I ask her she’ll say no so what should we do?’. I said, ‘Ah, just f***ing do it. Just do it’. She’ll cry. She’ll be emotional. But you’re meant to. It’s 50 years.” On Helen hoping to leave without a fuss, Jack told us: “She wanted to do the back door. Didn’t want to create a fuss for people. I said, it’s not so much for you, it’s for the building. It’s for everyone.”
Jack also spoke about his own final scenes with Helen, just him, with each Platt child getting their own moment with Gail before she leaves in her final ever episode. But Jack struggled to film the “emotional” moment, even telling the director he would have to do it in one take as he found it difficult to say goodbye to his beloved co-star after 25 years.
He revealed: “We all had our own emotional scenes with her, separately. I think there’s this thing where she comes to each of us separately and basically gives us a goodbye. Even in the rehearsals, I couldn’t really run it. I couldn’t really do it.
“I’ve only got one go at it. I’ve only got one take. I knew there’d be tears and there wouldn’t be anything else left. I told the director John Anderson, ‘I can’t do it.’
The ITV soap legend bowed out to quite a crowd (
Image:
ITV)
Jack and Helen have worked together for more than 20 years (
Image:
ITV)“I went, ‘Are you doing the close shots first?’ and he said we’d do the close shots. I said, ‘I’ll do the close ones. Get Helen and me, and then we can do wides and everything. But if we’re gonna do it, because it’s me saying goodbye to Helen, it’s Helen saying goodbye to me after 25 years, I’m only probably going to have one in me’.
“Helen was worried about getting the lines right. And I said it doesn’t matter, does it? Just say whatever you want. She’s saying goodbye, you know. So, yeah, we did it and it’s really good.”
As for Helen’s leaving do, Jack shared how her husband Trevor Dawson was there as the cast celebrated – with a speech that made everyone cry. Jack told: “It was really nice. We had the thing in the bistro, champagne, a few drinks on her last day. It was really lovely. They did a really nice montage.
“It was great. Everybody was very happy. Me, Ben [Price] and Tina [O’Brien], we gave a little speech. It really was [lovely].”
