Coronation Street’s Sue Cleaver is preparing to bid farewell to the cobbles after a remarkable 25-year stint as the beloved character Eileen Grimshaw. Throughout her tenure on the ITV soap, Eileen has been at the heart of numerous poignant and dramatic storylines, including the recent heartbreaking loss of her sister Julie Carp (Katy Cavanagh).
Yet, Sue admits that behind the scenes, these intense moments often dissolve into fits of giggles at the most “inappropriate” times. During an appearance on the Off Script soap podcast, Sue shared some hilarious anecdotes: “I laughed with Katy Cavanagh when she was dead on the floor bless her heart.”
She then recounted how one of her tears ended up in Katy’s nose, leading to a bout of uncontrollable laughter between the two.
However, there’s one co-star who takes the cake for causing on-set hilarity. Sue revealed that working with Simon Gregson, who portrays Steve McDonald, is “impossible”, reports the Mirror.
“Working with Simon, that’s just impossible,” she confessed. The pair share many scenes in the cab office Street Cars, where Sue explained they keep a diary filled with humorous notes.
“We have a diary where we can be seen writing little notes. Really what is in that book is the most disgusting photographs of ‘Sue by Simon, aged 4.'”.
Sue admitted to reciprocating the prank, but the book mysteriously vanished one day. “I think they removed it in fear of it getting into the wrong hands,” she chuckled.
In other parts of the interview, Sue opened up about her “emotional” and “perfect” final scenes, which are expected to air in the coming weeks.
“I can’t give anything away but it’s absolutely fabulous. They really did me proud,” she said, keeping quiet on the details.
“When I read it and saw it, I was really emotional. It’s the perfect ending. It is everything that I wanted. They asked me what I would like and I decided a year ago that I was gonna go. Sue then went on to speak about Ryan Thomas’ return, who will be reprising his role as her son, Jason for the big exit.”
I rang Ryan Thomas and I said, ‘Ryan, I’ve not told work yet but I’m gonna leave. Would you come back?
I’d really like you to take me out’. He said, ‘I wasn’t planning to but I can’t refuse that can I’. “”It just felt really right that he was there,” she said.