Sue Cleaver has confirmed that she has filmed her final scenes for Coronation Street after 25 years playing Eileen Grimshaw, describing it as 'surreal'.
Coronation Street's Sue Cleaver has opened up about her "emotional" final day on the set of the ITV soap, where she portrayed Eileen Grimshaw for a quarter of a century.
The 61-year-old actress shared her experiences during an appearance on ITV's Loose Women on Monday, 31st March.
Host Jane Moore announced: "It was a very big day for you on Friday, Sue, wasn't it? 25 years on the cobbles, and you left!"
Sue confirmed: "Yeah, I did. Friday was my final day on the cobbles, and it was so surreal." A clip was then aired showing Sue receiving applause and hugs from her co-stars Ryan Thomas, Gareth Pierce, and Tony Maudsley after filming her last scenes.
"That was it, that was a wrap and that was me saying bye to everybody," the soap star elaborated. "It was so emotional. It was really emotional."
Sue also revealed that she had been having "weird" dreams in the days leading up to her departure from the show, reports the Mirror.
She continued: "It was so weird because I didn't know how I was going to feel but all week I was having really intense dreams of being murdered and a lot of carving knives appearing. I looked it up, and knives are about severance, about the end of something... They were all anxiety dreams."
Her fellow cast members ensured her departure was marked in a special way, with Antony Cotton, who plays Sean Tully, arranging a farewell dinner.
"But I had a lovely time as Antony Cotton arranged a lovely dinner out and it was really difficult because there's so many people there to go out with and I'm not a party girl. He'd arranged a private dinner and there was 12 of us and we had a really lovely time and then we finished up filming on Friday," Sue shared.
The news of Sue's exit from the cobbles emerged last year, with the actress expressing her gratitude for her time on the show: "I've had 25 privileged years of working on Coronation Street.
"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."
In an emotional final storyline for Eileen, her sister Julie Carp (played by Katy Kavanagh) makes a comeback to reveal her battle with stage four cancer, prompting Eileen and her son Todd to support Julie in making the most of her life.
Loose Women airs on weekdays on ITV1 at 12.30pm. Coronation Street airs on weeknights on ITV1 at 8pm.
