Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street‘s Donnaleigh Bailey has revealed she has returned to filming as fan-favourite character Jess Heywood. The actor has appeared on-and-off as the police officer since 2017. The star has now shared a series of Instagram posts confirming she is back to film scenes after last appearing in 2025, saying she was “forever grateful”.
“Time on my favourite street playing my favourite copper Jess,” she captioned a series of selfies from the set, before teasing: “Some lovely stuff coming up on your teleboxes.”
In a follow-up clip saying hello to fans, Donnaleigh said she was “busy filming and keeping the street of Weatherfield safe”.
“One of my favourite things to do is take a walk on the cobbles,” she added. “It really inspires me, and I just think, how lucky am I to work in the most amazing places ever, the nation’s favourite soap. It’s incredible and I’m grateful every day.”
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Jess was notably a mentor figure to the late police officer Craig Tinker, who was killed off in violent scenes last May by Mick Michaelis.
Speaking to Digital Spy last year, actor Colson Smith recalled learning that his character would die, sharing: “I asked [Corrie producer] Kate [Brooks]: ‘Do I get killed?’
“She stopped and stumbled a little bit, but I said: ‘If it makes it easier for you, the right answer for me is yes! For me to go, I would want Craig to die. I’d want the door to be shut, so I could know in my head that his journey is now over’.
ITV
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“So in a really weird way, it was the right thing for Craig to be killed. I didn’t want that possibility of ‘We might have you back’ – knowing that it would be very unlikely, and knowing that it would feel a bit like unfinished business.”
Colson said that his “hero’s death” was “by far the most perfect story for his exit”, adding: “I’ve got everything that I’ve got from Coronation Street and that’s it now, because I know there’s no return for Craig in the future.”
Coronation Street airs on weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast from Inside Soap magazine. The latest episode delves into next week’s soap spoilers for EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale – featuring an unexpected pregnancy, dark new alliances, and secretive newcomers causing chaos on the cobbles.