Coronation Street's Maureen Lipman in tears over death of Cerberus the dog as it brought back painful memories of her own loss

Coronation Street fans were distraught over heartbreaking scenes which saw Cerberus the greyhound put to sleep after the poorly dog ate an Eccles cake. Viewers of the ITV soap were warned of upsetting scenes as gran Evelyn Plummer was forced to say a tearful farewell to her trusted pooch.

Tragedy struck on the cobbles after, in last Wednesday's episode, Evelyn called in Roy Cropper's cafe with Cerberus in tow. When the vet suggested food poisoning, a guilty Roy revealed he'd dropped an Eccles cake in the café containing currans which are poisonous to dogs

The usually stoic Evelyn cried as she wrapped her boy in a blanket and said goodbye, and actress Maureen Lipman was also in tears for real as she filmed the scenes after her own devastating loss, reports the Mirror.

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"Thank you for being the best boy, the prince of Weatherfield," Evelyn said about her 'greatest companion' as the vet administered the injection. There was an outpouring of grief on Twitter as the nation mourned along with her.

Maureen recalled about the scenes: “The animal looked so hangdog on its last day, I swear he knew the storyline. It was incredibly sad. One of the girls in make-up asked if I needed a tear stick. I told her I needed something to stop me crying, not start me.”

Maureen, who has played Tyrone Dobbs' battleaxe gran Evelyn since 2018, says the story reawakened painful memories for her. She explained: "Last year, my 16-year-old dog Diva had to be put down. She’d been coughing for weeks so I knew it was the end.

“The awful thing was, I was filming in Salford so I had to say goodbye to her on Zoom. It was horrible. The