Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street’s Dame Maureen Lipman has revealed the demand she made when asked to return to the soap. The actor, who plays Evelyn Plummer, decided to step back from her full-time role last year in order to spend more time with her now-husband David Turner.
Battleaxe Evelyn left Weatherfield in January 2025, as she headed off to university to pursue a law degree. Since then, Evelyn has made a handful of appearances on the cobbles to check in on her loved ones.
Addressing her next possible stint, Dame Maureen explained that she would only make another comeback if she was given a “proper storyline”.
“I love Corrie but I don’t know when I am going back,” she told The Mirror.
ITV//ITV
Related: Best streaming services
“They asked me at Christmas. I said, ‘I will come back, but you will have to give me a proper storyline. I am not just coming back to stand in the Rovers Return and say, ‘I’m back’. Who cares?”
She added: “It is a perfect job and I could be in it for the rest of my sane time.”
The fan favourite character did, in fact, return at Christmas, playing an important role in the Christmas Day whodunnit.
Evelyn was walking her dog Freddie when she found Daniel Osbourne unconscious in the ginnel, having been attacked by Will Driscoll.
ITV
Related: Coronation Street spoilers – when will stalker Mal Roper be caught out?
Last autumn, Evelyn made another appearance on the cobbles, and told Fiz that she had decided to give up university as it was too expensive and a young person’s game.
When announcing her exit at the end of 2024, Dame Maureen said: “I’ll be absent for a while, and then coming back. I’m not going to die but then I’ll be in and out of it because I want to have a bit of a life. David and I are thinking of having a bit of a gap year.”
Meanwhile, Evelyn’s daughter Cassie Plummer (played by Claire Sweeney) will be leaving Weatherfield this summer, after three years on the soap. Will Evelyn be back to bid Cassie farewell?
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.