{"id":288917,"date":"2026-02-09T15:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288917\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:32:15","slug":"following-her-shock-cancer-revelation-on-the-late-late-soap-queen-beverley-callard-says-she-cant-wait-to-return-to-ireland-after-her-treatment-and-the-corrie-legend-hints-at-one-of-the-irish-delig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288917\/","title":{"rendered":"Following her shock cancer revelation on the Late Late, soap queen Beverley Callard says she can’t wait to return to Ireland after her treatment – and the Corrie legend hints at one of the Irish delights she’ll miss most…"},"content":{"rendered":"

When soap queen Beverley Callard<\/a> revealed her shock breast cancer<\/a> diagnosis to Patrick Kielty<\/a> just minutes into their chat on Friday night’s Late Late Show, the warmth that was immediately channeled her way from all over her newly adapted country was tangible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After telling Patrick that she found out the daunting news just as she was about to start her first day of filming\u00a0her first scenes in Fair City, she received an emotional round of applause from the stunned live-studio audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Irish social media, the well-wishes were almost as instantaneous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The world is full of strong, feisty women, and I love strong, feisty women,’ she had told Kielty, and Lord knows Ireland is a land of strong, feisty woman.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A day after that revelation, she told the Irish Mail on Sunday she is gutted to have to leave Dublin and return to England for cancer treatment, but added that she said she was looking forward to moving to Ireland permanently.<\/p>\n

\"Late <\/p>\n

Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty with Beverley Callard on set in Carrigstown recently\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actress \u2013 who played Liz McDonald on Coronation Street<\/a> for over 30 years \u2013 told the Irish Mail on Sunday: \u2018To be honest, I don\u2019t want to go back at all. We\u2019ve had the best time in Ireland over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n

\u2018Me and Jon just can\u2019t wait to be back in a couple of weeks hopefully. We are just packing up our AirBnb and preparing for the ferry,\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am about to make myself a Tayto cheese and onion crisp sandwich just to get myself ready for the journey!\u2019<\/p>\n

Ms Callard \u2013 who appears in the soap for the first time next week as Gwen\u2019s long-lost mother Lily \u2013 travelled back to the UK yesterday to begin treatment for breast cancer.<\/p>\n

She will have her lymph nodes tested before an operation and radiotherapy and then she will return to Dublin.<\/p>\n

Ms Callard told the MoS: \u2018I\u2019m feeling fine, I\u2019m feeling strong. I\u2019m glad I\u2019ve said it out publicly so it\u2019s just out there for other thousands of women who are also going through it.<\/p>\n

\u2018But yes, I\u2019m feeling really strong, a little bit scared because it seems a bit more real since I\u2019m going back to hospital next week. But I\u2019m really full of optimism.<\/p>\n

\u2018The biggest thing of all is I cannot wait to come back to Fair City to all the actors and the crew because they\u2019ve just been amazing and I love the treadmill of being in studio, and doing one scene after another.<\/p>\n

\u2018The writing has been amazing and I just can\u2019t wait for more.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ms Callard revealed on Friday\u2019s Late Late Show that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.<\/p>\n

She told host Patrick Kielty: \u2018I\u2019d had some tests just before I left the UK, and literally 15 or 20 minutes before [my first Fair City scene] I was in my dressing room at Fair City, getting ready to go on, and I was quite nervous, thinking, \u201cI hope everybody thinks I\u2019m alright…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018My consultant rang me and said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to come back to the UK\u2019. I said, \u201cWell, I can\u2019t possibly, you know? I\u2019ve just taken a new job\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018I said, \u201cI\u2019m away for a month\u201d \u2013 and I was diagnosed with breast cancer.\u2019<\/p>\n

The soap legend also told the MoS how she had been to Ireland only a handful of times before taking the part and any time she had come had \u2018always been for parties\u2019, such as award shows.<\/p>\n

\u2018So I\u2019ve always been a little worse for wear, to say the least,\u2019 she said. \u2018I am known to party every now and again.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Beverley <\/p>\n

Beverley is set to make her on-screen debut in Carrigstown on February 19, but was diagnosed with cancer just minutes before she was due to film her first Fair City scenes\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 68-year-old actress revealed how the public\u2019s reaction shifted during a major Coronation Street story line of the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n

Her character Liz suffered domestic abuse at the hands of army man husband Jim, played by Charlie Lawson from Enniskillen.<\/p>\n

Ms Callard remembered Jim\u2019s character was a \u2018typical sergeant major and bombastic and domineering\u2019 when they started on the soap, while Liz was \u2018a bit of a wimp\u2019 \u2013 but the pair \u2018decided we would play them differently\u2019.<\/p>\n

He would still be \u2018bombastic\u2019 but played \u2018with a vulnerability\u2019, while she \u2018was going to have a great strength\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ms Callard said: \u2018When we did that abusive storyline, at first the sympathy was with Liz, totally and utterly.<\/p>\n

\u2018I got bin liners full of fan mail saying, \u201cThis is amazing,\u201d and all the rest of it.<\/p>\n

\u2018Four weeks later, the sympathy had completely shifted to Jim, and then everybody felt sorry for him. The writers did it really well, so both characters were at fault and both had good points as well.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ms Callard admits her response to an offer to join another soap would have been \u2018absolutely not\u2019 after she left Corrie a few years ago, because of the \u2018relentless\u2019 schedule for any soap.<\/p>\n

But the actress, who did a year on Emmerdale before joining Coronation Street, was introduced to Fair City around a year ago and the wheels were set in motion for her arrival.<\/p>\n

\u2018I love the way it\u2019s about people\u2019s lives. I love the writing. I love the acting. I think the lighting is good, everything. And I just thought it\u2019s a proper kitchen-sink drama.<\/p>\n

\u2018It reminds me of Coronation Street a long time ago, and that\u2019s not an insult, that is a compliment.\u2019<\/p>\n

Though she\u2019ll play it in her own accent, Lily will be \u2018nothing like Liz. Her wardrobe is going to be nothing like Liz\u2019s. If they came up with a mini skirt and Lycra, I would say, No way\u2019.<\/p>\n

The actress admitted she was \u2018terrified\u2019 in the first few days of shooting.<\/p>\n

\u2018Everybody said to me, \u201cYou can\u2019t possibly be terrified \u2013 you were in Corrie for 32 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018I have to tell you, every single time the red light goes on for a take, whether it be a show you\u2019ve been in for 32 years or a show you\u2019re doing for the first day, when they say you\u2019re going for a take, you do that sharp intake of breath and think, \u201cOkay, this is going to go into everybody\u2019s living room now,\u201d and it is scary.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When soap queen Beverley Callard revealed her shock breast cancer diagnosis to Patrick Kielty just minutes into their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[123133,9316,539,8081,93,61,60,9034,1489],"class_list":{"0":"post-288917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-beverley-callard","9":"tag-coronation-street","10":"tag-dailymail","11":"tag-emmerdale","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-patrick-kielty","16":"tag-tvshowbiz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}