Another Coronation Street departure as Helen Flanagan quits

October 16, 2011

While fans of Corrie continue to mourn the death of Betty Driver, today its revealed another popular face from the 50-year-old-soap is also departing Weatherfield.

Helen Flanagan, pictured right before her glam transformation, who has played Rosie Webster for 12-years, has decided to leave the series to, its reported, spend more time with her husband and possibly start a family.

The 21-year-old will record her final scenes in December, with her last on-screen appearance airing in February 2012.

Speaking to The Sunday Mirror, the actress is reported as saying, “I have played Rosie for more than half my life and I feel the time has come for me to move on and try something new. I am very excited about what the future might hold for me.

“I have loved playing Rosie and during my time growing up on Corrie I have made some amazing friends and learnt an awful lot.”

Originally Rosie was played by Emma Collinge from a baby until the age of nine. Helen replaced Collinge in 2000.

The early years of the character of Rosie Webster, the eldest daughter of Kevin and Sally – actors Michael Le Vell and Sally Whittaker, were far from exciting, the most we saw Rosie doing was eating fish fingers. In recent times however the character has been part of a number of high profile storylines.

Rosie, who is currently in the storylines a glamour model, had her first notable story when the teenager started dating neighbour Craig Harris, played by Richard Fleeshman, and the pair transformed themselves into ‘Goths’ – although real Goths were not impressed with the portrayal.

This phase didn’t last long and Rosie turned to glamour, after being introduced to the world of ‘knickers and bras’ at the Underworld factory where she found a job in the office. While also studying her A-levels she became romantically entangled with teacher John Snape – actor Graeme Hawley – who eventually kidnapped her keeping her in his late grandmother’s attic.

Snape was sent to prison and Rosie decided to make money out of her ordeal by posing for some saucy snaps and selling her story to a newspaper. She later lost her money in a con concerning the Underworld factory, resulting in her trying to boost her finances by blackmailing Snape who had returned to Weathefield, much to the distaste of Kevin and Sally, by demanding £50,000. He refused and she made false claims he’d attacked her. She was later proved to have made it up and this lead to a truce between Snape and the Websters.

Last year Rosie turned to topless modelling, much to the distaste of her parents however its made a ‘star’ of the Weatherfield girl, who has moved onto glamour shoots.

In the summer Helen underwent a glam transformation, pictured right, for the role of Rosie who was to be seen in her own online spin-off series from Corrie.

“Rosie will be swapping the cobbles of Weatherfield for the bright lights of London as she pursues her dream of becoming a famous top model.” ITV said at the time.

The three-part ITV.com series aired online in September and was part of increasing the profile of the character with a Rosie Webster Twitter account and her own website which ITV described as “Giving a hilarious insight into the life of Corrie’s answer to the girls of The Only Way Is Essex.”

The Rosie Webster online series followed the success on the ITV Corrie website of Gary’s Army Diaries and Ken and Deirdre’s Bedtime Stories.

The details of how and why Rosie leaves Weatherfield in 2012 have yet to be finalised, however bosses are reported to be keeping the door open for a possible return for the actress who they were keen to keep on board the ITV Granada production.

Speaking on Twitter yesterday she paid tribute to Betty Driver, her co-star who died aged 91 after a short illness, “Just heard that Betty Driver has died. Absolute legend. She will be so missed x.” And for certainly a lot of the male Coronation Street audience Flanagan will be much missed too.

Flanagan is dating Swansea City footballer Scott Sinclair so won’t be entirely out of the limelight while she takes time out from acting.