TA-RA CHUCK
Corrie star Beverley quitting Street after 30 years:
CORRIE star Beverley Callard is quitting the soap after 30 years of playing Liz McDonald.
The actress said Liz will make her big exit in the New Year with ‘one hell of a bang.’
The announcement will come as a huge shock to fans of the show, but the actress said she has a very good reason for the ‘difficult’ decision.
Beverley, 62, is set to go on tour with The Thunder Girls – a comedy play starring four women aged 50-plus.
The show received rave reviews during its preview run in Manchester earlier this year and Beverley said she is frustrated at the lack of decent roles for older actresses. She told OK! magazine: “There’s very little work in our industry for women over 50, but I’m 62 and recently I was doing three jobs at once.
“It made me realise how I was privileged to have the opportunity to do so when so many women my age no longer get the chance.
“I’m sick of ageism in the industry. Although I’ve had to leave the safety net of being in Coronation Street to do this, I’m hoping that ageist bosses, of which there are many, take note of how successful this show is and it starts the ball rolling on helping other women my age, get the roles they still deserve.” Beverley told Corrie bosses she planned to leave the soap earlier this month.
Recalling the moment, she said: “I was in shock, I felt totally numb.
“I’ve been told Liz is going to go with one hell of a bang. I can’t wait!”
Since joining the cobbles in 1989, Beverley has been involved in a variety of dramatic storylines, including the death of her baby, long-running feuds with son Steve McDonald and domestic abuse at the hands of on-screen husband Jim McDonald.
And last Christmas, Liz was left for dead in a horrifying hit-and-run, but survived the ordeal.
Beverley will still be on-screen as Liz until late summer 2020.
Her interview is in the current edition of OK! magazine.