Coronation Street legend Sue Cleaver may have only just left her role as Eileen Grimshaw on the cobbles, but already she has her next job lined up.
Eileen left Weatherfield for a new life in Thailand during Friday’s episode of the ITV soap, after confessing that she had fallen out of love with George Shuttleworth (Tony Maudsley).
Having been given the chance to invest in son Jason Grimshaw’s bar, Eileen decided to make her trip to Thailand permanent.
Sue announced her exit earlier this year, explaining that she wanted to try new things.
‘The door is still firmly open, but as I reached my 60th year, I decided it was time to embrace change, look for new adventures, and live fearlessly,’ Sue said.
Now, she is doing just that as she joins the cast of Snake in the Grass at the Theatr Clwyd and Octagon Theatre Bolton.
She is set to star alongside Nicola Stephenson and Lisa Zahra when the production hits the stage this autumn.
Sue spent 25 years on Coronation Street, and previously revealed that she was ‘privileged’ to have done so.
Talking to Metro at the British Soap Awards, Sue’s co-star Gareth Pierce, who plays on-screen son Todd Grimshaw, opened up about her departure.
‘It’s so sad,’ he told me. ‘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.
