Inside Coronation Street's Helen Worth exit as Gail Platt - extra scenes, emotional speeches and husband's appearance

It's the end of a Coronation Street era as Gail Platt waves goodbye to Weatherfield on Christmas Day. Fans of the ITV soap were shocked earlier this year when actress Helen Worth announced her plans to bow out of her long-running role.

She celebrated her golden anniversary om July and the occasion is momentous in more ways than one as Helen made the difficult decision to step down from her role as Gail, filming her final scenes last month.

Speaking of her exit, Helen said: "This year felt like the perfect time to leave the show after celebrating 50 years in the most wonderful job on the most wonderful street in the world. I made the decision at the start of the year and spoke to the producers who were very kind and understanding.

"I have been truly blessed to have been given the most incredible scripts week in week out, and to have worked with fantastic actors, directors and a brilliant crew. The past 50 years have flown by and I don't think the fact that I am leaving has quite sunk in yet."

At the time, executive Producer Iain Macleod also commented: "The words ‘legend’ and ‘icon’ get used a lot these days but they genuinely do apply to Gail and to Helen Worth. However, given her humility, I know Helen won’t thank me for saying so! In Helen’s hands, Gail has been a huge part of Coronation Street for five decades and at the centre of some of the most memorable storylines - often deriving from her catastrophically bad luck in choosing husbands!

"Her ill-fated marriage to Richard Hillman was one of the most ground-breaking stories in soap history and cemented Gail’s already established status as one of the Corrie greats. As the matriarch of the Platt clan, her affectionately prickly relationships with her kids and flighty