Gail Rodwell is a Coronation Street icon. She’s been on the cobbles for almost 50 years, coping with murder, serial killers, teen-pregnancy, cheating, lying and just about everything in between.
Actress Helen Worth, who plays Gail, has announced she’s waving goodbye to Weatherfield later this year, leaving fans emotional.
So we decided to round up some of Gail’s biggest moments as we get ready to bid the much-married matriarch farewell.
1. Gail in Coronation Street: Brian’s murder
Gail and Brian Tilsley had a fiery relationship – though perhaps not quite as fiery as Gail’s relationship with her mother-in-law, Ivy!
Brian and Gail actually married twice – the second time was after Gail had an affair with Ian Latimer and wasn’t sure if daughter Sarah was Brian’s or Ian’s. When she found out Brian was the daddy, the pair reconciled and remarried.
But Brian was killed outside a nightclub in 1989 when he stepped in to defend a young woman.
2. Sarah’s teen pregnancy
When Gail’s daughter Sarah-Lou, as she was known back then, was 13 she began behaving oddly. Worried Gail took her daughter to the doctor only to be horrified when the GP announced that Sarah was five months pregnant!
After a shaky start, Gail stood by her little girl and was a proud gran when Bethany was born.
3. Standing up to Callum
When Kylie’s ex, Callum, arrived on the Street, Gail fiercely defended her family against his nasty nature. In one memorable scene she overheard Owen Armstrong asking Callum what he did for a living.
“Drug dealer,” announced Gail cheerily to the the shocked Windass and Armstrong families, not to mention the rest of the drinkers in the Rovers. “He’s a drug dealer. He’s been to prison and everything.”
4. Gail in Coronation Street and Lewis Archer
As bad men go, Lewis wasn’t the worst of Gail’s choices, but he was pretty rubbish. He was a con artist, scammer and former escort who set his sights on Audrey, determined to fleece her of her life savings. When Gail convinced Audrey not to succumb to Lewis’s charms, he turned his attentions to her instead.
He convinced Gail it was her he really loved, scammed her out of thousands of pounds and did a runner. He even came back five years later trying to con her again. But now he’s six feet under – where he can’t scam anyone!
5. Food fighting with Deirdre
When the Barlows tried to prove that Lewis was untrustworthy, they headed over to Gail’s armed with CCTV proof that he’d nicked £4k from Peter’s bookies.
Unfortunately for Deirdre, though, the CCTV had also captured her locked in a steamy snog with Mr Archer.
Oops!
Gail took the snog very badly and a legendary food fight followed – much to the delight of Gail’s son David!
6. Gail in Coronation Street banged up!
Adding to her long list of bad choices, Gail fell for Joe McIntyre. He was the dad of Tina McIntyre, who was David’s girlfriend at the time. But Joe was badly in debt and planned to fake his own death to collect his life-insurance, canoe-man style.
Unfortunately, Joe’s scheme went VERY wrong. He actually died while he was trying to fake his own daeth, leaving wife Gail to pick up the pieces.
And that wasn’t the end of it. Gail was suspected of being involved. She went to prison and fellow inmate Tracy Barlow lied to say Gail had confessed in order to get herself off the hook. Thankfully, things eventually went Gail’s way and she was released!
7. Kylie’s death
Gail wasn’t always the biggest fan of her daughter-in-law Kylie, but eventually the pair grew to have quite a nice relationship. And let’s not forget that Gail and son David definitely didn’t have the easiest relationship either – he even shoved his poor mum down the stairs.
But when Kylie was murdered and bled to death on the cobbles, Gail was there to support her devastated son.
8. Richard Hillman
Oh where to start with Richard Hillman?! He seemed the answer to Gail’s prayers at first – handsome, charming, financially secure…
Oh, and a serial killer!
When Richard’s grisly crimes were uncovered it led Gail to utter the famous line: “You’re Norman Bates, with a briefcase!”
He went on to try to kill Gail’s entire family, but luckily he didn’t succeed!
9. Fighting with Eileen
Gail’s scraps with Eileen Grimshaw have become legendary on the Street. Their first rout took place when Gail discovered Todd Grimshaw had been cheating on her daughter Sarah with another man.
With the Street residents watching gleefully, the pair came to blows on the cobbles! And when Todd’s builder brother, Jason, arrived along with his boss Charlie, Gail announced they were “the rest of the Village People” – and the moment went down in Corrie history.
Since then the pair have scrapped more times than we can remember. Including when Eileen got jiggy with Gail’s husband Michael Rodwell – leading to a mid-hairdo brawl in Audrey’s!
10. Gail’s moving monologue
When Aidan Connor took his own life in 2018, it was Gail who closed the episode with a moving monologue. Looking out of the window at Coronation Street, she mused about everything that had happened.
She talked about how she’d lived on the Street for 40-odd years and she liked to think they all looked after each other. Except they’d not looked after Aidan. “Happen we’ve all been sleeping,” she told Audrey.
