After three years on the popular soap, ITV's Coronation Street has officially confirmed that Kelly Neelan will exit in forthcoming scenes. And she'll be going out in "explosive" style according to reports.
Millie Gibson, who plays the character in the long running ITV soap, has already filmed the final scenes on the cobbles. Taking to her Instagram Story the 18-year-old posted the line: "Last month on the cobbles..." She shared pictures of herself in the make-up chair at the Salford-based set and out sipping champagne with her on-screen guardians Mikey North and Samia Longchambon.
When it comes to the storyline, Corrie fans will know that it was previously teased that Kelly could finally uncover the truth about killer Gary Windass, and that he allowed her dying mother Laura Neelan to take the blame for killing her dad, Rick. Now the soap’s producer Iain MacLeod has revealed that the pair will enter into a ‘Corriewood’ showdown as part of a ‘super September’ week this month which is usually saved for ITV’s ‘Super Soap Week’ in October.
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“It leaves me with a heavy heart to say Kelly’s leaving the show and we thought the fact that Millie is going and therefore Kelly’s going allows us to go really big and do something incredibly high stakes and to get these characters to stand on these landmines we buried for them over the years and will go off in one cataclysmic explosion,” Iain revealed to the Manchester Evening News and other press.
He added: “We’ve really thrown everything at this week to bring out all the secrets and lies. It’s funny, it’s got the party to end all parties in the middle of it, it’s characterful and it’s just an all-around great week of Coronation Street.”
And Iain has teased that Kelly and Gary’s story will reach it’s ‘full stop’. “Gary has to retrace his steps back into the forest of doom where he once fought for his life with Kelly’s dad, Rick. It’s really brilliant tying up slash full stop on that story that began with that desperate act from Gary all those years ago.”
The the team haven't skimped on the techniques for the filming either. Heading out to RecodeXR Studio in Trafford Park, special equipment used for mega movies like Avengers and Disney+ series The Mandalorian have been used to film, which Iain believes makes them the first soap opera to use such technology. He said: “It’s called a volume wall. Essentially it’s like a very new version of a green screen and it means you can put your actors anywhere you can imagine. You can design a 3D world like the surface of mars and stick Ken and Rita up there having a sticky bun and a cup of tea if you wish.”
But this, of course, isn’t what they have done as it will be used as part of Gary and Kelly’s final face-off. “We’ve created an incredible rooftop sequence with a twinkling Mancunion cityscape behind it so that we can do things we’d never usually do on a location shoot,” Iain teased.
"It was mindbogglingly technical and we had to hire some experts who build this 3D version of Manchester that’s visible in all these scenes."
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