Coronation Street star Helen Worth has spoken about her reasons for leaving the cobbles after five decades as legendary matriarch Gail Platt.

Gail, as viewers will recall, left Weatherfield after 50 years just over a year ago, receiving a happy ending – a rarity in soap – as she jetted off to the south of France with new husband Jesse Chadwick (John Thomson) for a fresh start.

Her final scenes saw her leave the eponymous street with her new beau following heartfelt moments with son David (Jack P Shepherd), mum Audrey Roberts (Sue Nicholls) and even a brief conversation with the ghost of killer Richard Hillman (Brian Capron)!

One year later, she staged a brief return at Christmas, with a video message for her loved ones.

Helen, 75, has revealed that her reasons for quitting the show after so long were because she ‘got a bit tired’.

‘It was only a bit towards the end when I got a bit tired. But the first, how many years?,’ she said. ’49 years, were a dream.’

‘My final husband, John Thomson, was absolutely gorgeous to me, because by then I was rattling a bit,’ she told The Sun. ‘It was around about 4,000 episodes and I was rattling a little bit.’

The soap legend ruled out a full-time return as Gail, adding: ‘I had good and bad days… but then you forget the bad days and you just remember the good days.’

ITV soap boss Iain MacLeod previously hinted at the possibility of a return for Gail if a storyline calls for it.

‘Helen and I have had a conversation where she’s said, “There might be times in my future where I’ll come back”,’ he told The Daily Star.

‘If there’s a big storyline going on with the Platt family, she might want to come in and play a role in that.

‘We certainly wanted to leave the door open so that was possible. We wanted that to still be on the cards.’