As her character, the redoubtable Gail Chadwick (who, in true soap fashion, was also known at various points in time as Gail Potter, Tilsley, Platt, Hillman, McIntyre and Rodwell) evolved, so the programme’s viewing figures grew.
When Helen Worth joined the cast of Coronation Street in 1974, the ITV soap opera was reaching up to 8 million British households per night.
No, British soaps aren’t dead yet The ITV show has been hit by a string of departures, and was beaten in the Christmas Day ratings by ‘The Weakest Link’.
Worth is but the highest-profile exit in a raft of recent departures – from Colson Smith’s Craig Tinker to Charlotte Jordan’s Daisy Midgeley – that have sparked rumours of a show in crisis, as dwindling enthusiasm has been coupled with industrial turmoil and budget cuts.
Walford’s Yuletide extravaganza – a storyline about Cindy Beale’s affair with her stepson – scored a meagre audience of 3.98 million and barely scraped into the Top 10 most watched shows on Christmas Day.
