Coronation Street legend Dame Maureen Lipman, who plays Evelyn Plummer, has announced she is taking a break from the ITV soap and will not return until 2025
Coronation Street stalwart Dame Maureen Lipman, famed for her portrayal of Evelyn Plummer, has announced she will be taking a well-deserved break from the iconic ITV soap. The esteemed actress is set to take a hiatus at the end of 2024 and won’t grace the screens again until 2025, swapping the drama of Weatherfield for the enchantment of panto.
The celebrated star is gearing up to dazzle audiences in Richmond Theatre’s festive production of Beauty and the Beast, which runs from December into January.
Maureen’s brief departure was confirmed by a Corrie spokeswoman, who said: “Dame Maureen is taking a sabbatical from Coronation Street towards the end of the year.” We hope to see her return to the cobbles in 2025.”
Regarding her impending pantomime role, Maureen laughed herself to tears: “They asked me to do panto and I said ‘Oh no I can’t.” They exclaimed, “Oh, you can!”
This announcement was made not long after the 77-year-old actress gave a harsh review of the latest storylines on the serial opera. “We’ve come to a point in Corrie now where people are getting murdered in knicker factories,” Maureen said, lamenting the change in storytelling, according to the Daily Star, during her interview on the Beyond the Title podcast.
“We’re having domestic abuse. Anything that ticks the box of social problems in the 21st century is going to be in your local soap. Whereas back then you had the freedom to put Martha [Longhurst], Minnie [Caldwell] and Ena [Sharples] in the snug and have a conversation about Ben-Hur.”
“It’s never been political but I always like it when the women sit down and go, ‘Ooh, Donald Trump, ain’t his hair shocking.’ All those wonderful expressions that your parents come out with, like my mother saying, ‘Ooh, doesn’t a black skirt cover a multitude of sins.’ People talk like that, and we recognise it as true.”
The iconic cobbles have seen a flurry of departures this year, both temporary and permanent. Unfortunately, there’s more to come as Peter Ash is set to bid farewell to his role as Paul Foreman for good.
In heart-wrenching scenes this summer, Paul will lose his fight with motor neurone disease. In November 2023, medical professionals predicted that Paul had between six months to a year left to live. Despite his rapidly deteriorating condition, he has managed to reach the seven-month mark.
Now reliant on a feeding tube for nourishment and confined to his flat following a fall from his stairlift, Paul’s situation is dire.
In 2023, Paul celebrated what was likely his “last Christmas ” with his family. His departure from the show is expected before the autumn of 2024 rolls in.
