STREET GOODBYE CONFIRMED Sue Cleaver FINALLY Reveals Eileen’s EXIT PLAN After DECADES On Coronation Street Leaving Viewers HEARTBROKEN

Coronation Street airs Sue Cleaver’s final scenes next week as she bows out from the role of Eileen Grimshaw after 25 years.

Eileen reaches a crossroads in her life when her son Jason, who’s briefly back in town, invites her to join him in Thailand and invest in his bar business.

While Eileen’s partner George Shuttleworth offers to make the move with her, there’s a sense that they’re both starting to realise they’re no longer right for each other. Are they about to go their separate ways?

Here, Sue chats about her decision to leave Coronation Street and Eileen’s final week on screen.

ITV

Why is Eileen starting to feel that George isn’t the right man for her?

“Eileen had such bad experiences with men. George was kind and he was comfortable, so she stuck with him. But Julie was saying to her: ‘Look, are you sure he’s the one? Life is so short’. It was that realisation that life is very short and: ‘Am I just settling for the wrong reason?’

“Eileen fought against it, but Julie’s voice was in her ear saying: ‘You know this isn’t the one for you. You’re not in love with him. He’s not making your heart sing’.

“It’s not like they’ve been together for 20 years, where you might expect that. It’s still quite new, in a sense.

“So I think it was really the voice of Julie in Eileen’s ear that started making her question her whole lot in life, where she was in life, the age she was and was there anything else out there for her?”

Eileen’s always been surrounded by people at the Grimshaw house. Would you say that she hasn’t had much time to think about what’s right for her?

“Everybody’s always come before her. Eileen has looked after so many people and is still looking after so many people, so she’s really neglected her own needs, in a way.

“That’s what she’s thinking about. It’s like: ‘What have I done with my life? Where am I? What do I want? What’s out there?’ So I just think she’s reached that stage in her life.”

ITV

In real life, you chose to leave Coronation Street because you also wanted to do something different. What advice would you give to Eileen?

“I think that we have to have more faith in ourselves. It’s important that at this time in our life, when we’ve got empty nests and we feel that society’s done with us, we push back against that.

“We might not be able to change society’s view – slowly it’s changed – but it’s up to us and we can make changes. I think the most important thing is not to sit and zone out, because the only way to affect change is to get out of your comfort zone and it’s the only time that things happen.

“There are lots of opportunities out there. We have to remember all the strength that we have and what we have to offer as women of a certain age – our experience counts for a lot.

“It’s never too late to reinvent yourself. It’s never too late to be brave and try something new. Bravery isn’t just something you have – it’s learned. You just make little tiny steps, just little tiny things every day to change your routine and step out and be fearless.

“So that’s the journey I’m on. And in a sense, yes, Eileen’s mirroring that by stepping out into the unknown.”

We know that you were keen for Ryan Thomas to return as Jason Grimshaw for Eileen’s exit. Can you tell us how that came about?

“Ryan was there from the start and he was inconveniently living in Thailand. It wouldn’t be too far of a jump to expect that if Eileen was going to make a leap, that she would involve her son.

“So when I decided to leave, which was over a year ago, I rang Ryan and I said: ‘Ryan, I’m going to tell them that I’m going. If they ask me about exits, I’d really like to say that you’d come back and take me out, but I don’t know whether they’d go for it or not’.

“He just went: ‘Oh my gosh, of course I would’. That was so lovely for me. It was just so nice to have him back and filming those final scenes with him. It just felt like I’d come full circle, really.”

ITV

How does Eileen feel when Jason suggests that she should go to Thailand with him?

“It’s then that Eileen realises: ‘What do I have? What am I… no, why can’t I?’

“She’s very fond of George. She has love for George, but she knows she’s settling. For many people, that would be an amazing opportunity to go to almost the other side of the world, and with the safety blanket of her son being there, so she can go and be with him for a while.

“She’s been with Todd for a long time, and she doesn’t have anything to lose really apart from that.”

So were you pleased with the final storyline?

“I said very much that I would like Eileen to go off to pastures new, to mirror what I’m doing in a sense. I just think it’s time for a change.

“So it was perfect. I’m so happy with the ending. I was so humbled by it and the way it had been written and what it is. I felt very grateful to have such a wonderful ending written. It seemed very, very apt.”

Will you watch your final episode?

“Yeah, I’ll watch that last episode. I will. It is the end of a chapter of my life.”

ITV

How was it to film your exit story?

“It was filmed out of order, so my last scene on screen was filmed a few days before my last day, so that made it a lot easier.

“There were a few moments where it hit me and I was like: ‘Oh wow’. It’s not so much the job, but also the people that we take for granted. They’re just there all the time and then you go: ‘Oh God, that’s it. That is the end.’ That is strange.

“But I had a nice dinner out with the Grimshaws and the Street Car boys on the evening after we’d filmed that final Eileen scene, and then we were back in to do other scenes. It was a very strange thing.

“For me, when I’m going, I’m going, and I don’t like goodbye. So the greatest thing for me was that it was the very end of the day when I finished, so I knew I wouldn’t have loads of people in there because I find that sort of thing uncomfortable.

“I had to get on the train because I had some work in London the next morning. And then I woke up on Saturday morning in the hotel and it was a sense of: ‘Yep, that was it. That’s it’.

“Because it was exactly how I wanted it to be, it felt right. I’m never going to feel like I’m that far away. I have too many connections there. I’ve got too many friends who are there – my husband still works there so it’s always going to be a huge part of my life, and maybe one day she’ll bob back.”