Coronation Street is set to say goodbye to a legend in tonight’s episode as Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) leaves the cobbles behind after 25 years.

When I caught up with Gareth Pierce, who plays Todd Grimshaw in the ITV soap, at the British Soap Awards last weekend, he opened up about Sue’s departure, telling me it was ‘so sad’.

‘We’re hugely going to miss Sue,’ he admitted. ‘She’s brilliant. Eileen is such an iconic character.

‘But I think she’s also a brilliantly equipped actress to see what else is out there. I think it’s been a burning desire of Sue’s for a while. I think she’ll be brilliant in whatever she does.’

Gareth clearly has fond memories of the actress, as he shared how welcoming she was during his audition process.

‘Sue’s amazing and she really welcomed me in, as well. I screen-tested with Sue as well as with Dan Brocklebank and Peter Ash when I was coming in and that was probably one of the things that got me the job was that they both treated it as we were just filming those scenes by that stage.

‘I was so lucky that Sue was so generous that we fell into the mother/son dynamic very easily. That’s testament to her as much as anything that I did.’

As well as Eileen’s exit, Gareth has promised ‘lots to come’ for Todd in the coming weeks.

Viewers have seen him find love with Theo Silverton (James Cartwright) this year – though that has come with some obstacles.

‘There’s baggage that comes with Theo and that’s already becoming apparent,’ Gareth pointed out.

‘The small matter of being married, the small matter of having two kids. There’s been already some obstacles, even prior to finding out about the conversion therapy stuff.

‘That’s the thing, the stakes are quite high immediately because of what Theo is potentially giving up for the relationship, but also because of what Todd is putting on the relationship as well. The stakes are high for Todd because he actually really wants this one to work. There’s lots to come.’