Coronation Street actress Lisa George is leaving her role of Beth Tinker behind on the ITV cobbles – but she already has more work lined up.
Coronation Street icon Lisa George addressed her “scary” exit from the ITV soap after an incredible 13 years playing Beth Tinker.
Lisa made her first appearance as Beth in 2011, appearing with her young son Craig at the Bistro. She’d later go on to marry Kirk Sutherland and lose her niece Sinead in a heartbreaking storyline.
But it was actually in 1997 when Lisa first starred in Corrie as an unnamed nurse character, returning in 2005 to play a family liaison officer for five episodes before landing a permanent role.
Now she’s broken her silence on her exit, which is set to air this Friday (August 30), speaking to Sian Welby and Craig Doyle on This Morning.
Confirming how she’ll watch her final scenes, Lisa said: “I’ve got a friend from drama school who’s coming over and we’re going to sit and watch it. But yeah, it’s a bit scary!”
Sian gushed: “I’m excited to see what you do next!” – and Lisa confessed she’s already got more work lined up.
“Yeah, let’s see!” she said. “I’m doing panto at Christmas so I’m very excited about that. It’s Cinderella at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon. I’m playing the Fairy Godmother.
“So I can’t wait to be Fairy Godmother again, because I did that before at Oldham, years ago. I’ve done Cinderella – my very first panto was in 1997 with Paul Crone, roving reporter at ITV Granada.
“I’m very excited to go back and do panto.”
Lisa hasn’t acted in any other TV projects since starting Corrie – but she previously played Pauline Arkwright in one episode of rival soap Emmerdale in 2005, as well as landing roles in shows like Holby City and the telly adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson’s book The Illustrated Mum.
Lisa has also starred in Casualty, City Central and Stanton Blues across her varied career.
Her exit from the show comes after she addressed her horrifying health battle, which could make her go blind.
She has NAION – non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy – which can cause sudden vision loss in one eye. It came after she was hit in her right eye while gardening in 2016 by a heavy knot of rope, and lost part of her sight at the bottom of the eye.
Doctors sadly told her she would never regain full sight in that eye, and in 2022 the vision in her left eye began to distort. Sadly she’s now unable to drive due to the condition, and had to have her scripts done in larger font at work.
