“I think she was more nervous about ringing us than she was about leaving.”

Coronation Street stars Jack P Shepherd and Ben Price have shared their initial reactions to on-screen mum Helen Worth’s exit.

The actor revealed earlier this year that she would be exiting the soap as Gail Rodwell after 50 years and recently filmed her final scenes ahead of her departure.

Speaking on their podcast with fellow Corrie star Colson Smith, On The Sofa, Jack and Ben – who play David Platt and Nick Tilsley, respectively – recalled learning from Helen that she had decided to leave.

“She rang me, she told me on the phone, she rang all of us,” Jack revealed. “I think it was maybe this time last year, so November. First of all, I got a missed call from her, and I thought, ‘That’s a butt dial. That doesn’t happen.’ It happens very rarely.”

The David actor admitted he blanked the call thinking it was accidental, though he realised it was legit when fellow star Tina O’Brien texted him to confirm that Helen was trying to contact him.

“I thought, ‘Oh, this is bad. This is bad news then now,'” he continued. “So I phoned [Helen], and I had her on loudspeaker in the car because I pulled over. She said, ‘Oh hello…’ She’d told Ben, she’d told Tina, and she went, ‘I’m going to tell you, and then I need to tell Sue [Cleaver].’

“I instantly now know she’s off. And she says, ‘I’m going, I’ve decided to leave.’ And she feels as though she’s done her time and whatever, which is fine. So I say, ‘Great, fantastic, you’ve earned it.’ I mean bloody hell, if anybody else… 50 years in any gig, is a long time.”

Ben suggested that Helen had “done her time” and that he instinctively “knew” she was leaving as soon as she rang him.

“Even before she got it out, I went, ‘It’s a great idea. Good. It’s the right thing to do,'” he added. “I think she was more nervous about ringing us than she was about leaving.”

“She was worried about us and our future,” Jack noted. Ben elaborated that Helen was concerned about the Platts, especially as she initially arrived “with no other family”.

“You start to build a whole portion of the history of the Street only around Helen, and then she’s made it to this point and the Platts are a big family on the Street,” Ben added.

“And I think she was more concerned [about]: is it alright, are we in a good place, have I left it in a good place, are you going to be alright? A bit like a family, really.”

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