Coronation Street’s Helen Worth, 69, and other older soap stars are back to work after lockdown

Coronation Street’s Helen Worth, 69, and other older soap stars are finally back to work on set after months in lockdown

Helen Worth and other older Coronation Street actors are finally going back to work after several months of lockdown.

The actress, 69, who plays Gail Platt on the soap, is one of the first older actors to return to filming along with David Neilson, 71, who stars as Roy Cropper.

Speaking to The Mirror, Julia Goulding, who plays Shona Ramsey said: ‘It’s funny, Helen Worth was in the other day and she kept calling herself the new girl, because it was her first day back. I said, “Oh please, Helen!” I think everyone’s just getting used to it, as and when they’re back in.’

Back in action: Helen Worth, 69, and other older Coronation Street actors are finally going back to work after several months of lockdown (pictured in May 2019)

The older stars were brought back to work later than their younger counterparts due to government guidelines regarding the coronavirus pandemic.  

According to the publication, other older stars like Bill Roache, who plays Ken Barlow, are expected to return to the set soon. 

Julia is relishing being back on the Cobbles, playing a new incarnation of Shona who does not remember her friends or family or her fiancé David Platt.

She said: ‘It’s been really fun. Obviously it’s very rare for an actor to be able to play a completely different character in a long-running soap, and it’s been fabulous.

Return: The actress, who plays Gail Platt on the soap, is one of the first older actors to return to filming along

Return: The actress, who plays Gail Platt on the soap, is one of the first older actors to return to filming along

‘At first, it was really difficult; obviously we did lots of research about the specifics of Shona’s brain injury.’

Coronation Street shut down production for several weeks earlier this year when Britain went into lockdown.  

In May, Helen admitted she didn’t know the full extent of the plans to return to work during an appearance on This Morning.

She said: ‘I haven’t got any scripts so I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. I can’t give anything away which is lovely for safety, but I can’t give anything away because I don’t know!’

Filming: David Neilson, 71, who stars as Roy Cropper is also returning to set after lockdown

Filming: David Neilson, 71, who stars as Roy Cropper is also returning to set after lockdown

Co-star: Julia Goulding, who plays Shona Ramsey said: 'It's funny, Helen Worth was in the other day and she kept calling herself the new girl, because it was her first day back'

Co-star: Julia Goulding, who plays Shona Ramsey said: ‘It’s funny, Helen Worth was in the other day and she kept calling herself the new girl, because it was her first day back’

‘I hope I’m not going anywhere’ she said, adding: ‘We are going back in a few weeks I think, it’s all been organised by ITV, everything will be safe for us to go back and we will start filming again to put more programmes again. We could get back to six episodes a week.’

As for maintaining social distancing during filming, Helen explained that Coronation Street producer Iain MacLeod and his team have been working on scripts to reflect to some extent the coronavirus pandemic.

She said: ‘Iain said there will be some reference to Covid-19 but again I’m not sure how much, it would all be speculation on my part, I know they have been working on it since lockdown started.

‘The writers are brilliant coming up with ideas when they need to, I can’t see this being any different.’

Helen previously said: 'I haven’t got any scripts so I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. I can’t give anything away which is lovely for safety, but I can't give anything away because I don't know!'

Helen previously said: ‘I haven’t got any scripts so I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. I can’t give anything away which is lovely for safety, but I can’t give anything away because I don’t know!’