Coronation Street legend Dame Maureen Lipman is currently preparing to leave the soap for an extended period of time but isn't going quietly.
The actress who has played Evelyn Plummer since 2018 has had her fair share of storylines and this week, she'll be dealt a shattering blow.
In scenes airing later this week, Evelyn will be informed that her beloved dog and righthand man Cerberus is suffering from kidney failure, leaving her devastated.
Despite having a close relationship with local businessman Roy Cropper, Evelyn reveals that this could all end in disaster after he explained the four-legged friend may have consumed an Eccles Cake.
Maureen will also be bidding farewell to the soap in order to focus on other work and will be performing in a one-woman show.
The Mirror have delved into some of Maureen's life, including predicting the tragic death of Queen Elizabeth and her dramatic Celebrity Gogglebox exit.
Celebrity Gogglebox exit
The actress appeared on the Celebrity Gogglebox sofa alongside pal Gyles Brandreth in 2020.
However, she admits she walked away from the series after discovering several of her comments had been edited out the final programme.
On the show, viewers saw Maureen and Gyles divulge their thoughts on the previous week's TV but it was far from what she expected.
Speaking to Radio Times, she said: "I went in imagining that they wanted me for my wit and my brain. 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."
This, however, wasn't the first time she slammed the show, explaining that she decided she was "going" after being shown Naked Attraction and "watching a series of hopeless men dangle their bits and pieces".
Prince Philip's pal Gyles defended Dame Maureen, explaining: "Some of the things that Maureen has said are Oscar-winning funny but what do they use? Us yawning!"
Regal connections
Following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth on September 8, Dame Maureen revealed she had a "premonition" that the news was coming.
During a special BBC broadcast just ten days after the heartbreaking news, the star told Kirsty Young: "I had a premonition, Kirsty, I actually texted a friend in Corrie and said 'I think the Queen is going to die'.
"I just had one of those strange experiences and then I thought the show [her one-woman show in Manchester] would be cancelled, I didn't think anyone would play that night, but the directors came through and said we were all to carry on."
But before her death, Dame Maureen had met the Queen on several occasions, most recently during her visit to the Coronation Street set in 2021.
Discussing their interaction, Maureen said on Good Morning Britain: "She was such a geezer, I can’t tell you!
"We were all in love with her, even the most hardened, you know, the guys in the green room saying, 'I'm not putting a jacket on'.
"Because out she popped from her plum-coloured car and talked to everybody, 'oh you're sound, are you? So you're not in the...' and she asked me about my dog."
Heartache
Dame Maureen has never shied away from discussing the grief she has faced over the course of her life.
During her meeting with the Queen in 2021, she explained her late husband Jack Rosenthal who she married in 1974 has written episode 13 of the ITV soap.
Jack, who sadly died in 2004 had penned over 130 episodes of Coronation Street during the early days of the ITV soap.
His death aged 72 was ruled as multiple myeloma, a form of cancer.
But Maureen embodied the Queen as she attempted to deal with the grief of losing Jack, tellingThe People: "I have had a wonderful life, I have had my losses, of course.
"I lost my husband far too young to myeloma."
However, Maureen found love once again with computer expert Guido Castro, four years after the death of Jack.
Sadly, Gudio died in 2021 after contracting the coronavirus which "weakened him terribly".
Gudio had been in a respite home having previously been diagnosed with a form of Parkinson's disease, according to reports.
The actress explained that she had no idea when he contracted the virus, adding that it could have been when he received the vaccination.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she said: "I said to Guido: 'It's time to go, you've got to let go,' and I think for once in his life he actually did what I told him."
Maureen added: "my heart is cracking."
