Coronation Street star Dame Maureen Lipman to take break from Evelyn role

Coronation Street star Dame Maureen Lipman is set to take a brief break from the soap later this year.

The actress has played the role of Evelyn Plummer on the cobbles since 2018, and did take a brief break last year to star in a one-woman play called Rose.

A source has now confirmed to Digital Spy that Lipman will be taking another four-week break later this year, with the actress set to bring Rose to the West End.

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The news comes after Lipman confirmed last summer that she had signed a year-long extension contract with Coronation Street.

"I won't hear a word against it. It's full of quite exceptional actors working with very little rehearsal, very little direction," she told Reader's Digest at the time.

"Am I envious of some of my peers? Sometimes, yes. Do I have the right to be? Of course not. Would I like to be in Sex Education? Yes, of course. Am I sorry I've signed up with Corrie for another year? No, I'm not."

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As well as her turn on the cobbles, Lipman has been well-known for appearing on Celebrity Gogglebox in recent years, though said she was leaving in December 2021, criticising the editing on the Channel 4 series.

"I went in imagining that they wanted me for my wit and my brain," she later explained to Radio Times. "Of course, they just want to show you willies and for you to be shocked.

"Honestly, we were really funny together, but none of that was used. And if they don't want to use what we gave them, f**k them."

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.