‘What a ridiculous way to pay the mortgage!’ Coronation Street’s Helen Worth and Sue Cleaver reflect on THAT cobbles cat fight as Gail and Eileen’s feud escalates
They’ve been at loggerheads for decades and have never shied away from causing fireworks on the cobbles.
And Coronation Street stars Helen Worth and Sue Cleaver reflected on one of their characters’ most iconic clashes as Gail Platt and Eileen Grimshaw’s feud takes a new turn in upcoming scenes.
Clearly on far friendlier terms off-screen, the pair reflected on the hilarious moment they came to blows in a 2004 cat fight during an appearance on Wednesday’s This Morning.
Iconic: Coronation Street stars Helen Worth (left) and Sue Cleaver (right) reflected on one of their characters as Gail Platt and Eileen Grimshaw’s most iconic clashes on Wednesday
Helen, who has played Gail since 1974, spoke about the legendary scenes which saw Gail lash out at Eileen after learning her daughter Sarah-Louise Platt was pregnant with Todd Grimshaw’s child.
Explaining that the short scene took many hours to film, she said: ‘A long time actually I think it was much of the day, so we did rehearse it I think that one is my favourite.’
Sue, who has played Eileen since 2000, added: ‘While Helen is straddled over me we said ”what a ridiculous way to pay the mortgage”.’
So good: In 2004 the pair’s characters came to blows in an explosive catfight on the cobbles that left viewers in hysterics
Funny: The pair appeared on This Morning to reflect on the scenes as their characters’ feud takes a new turn in an upcoming storyline
In a new storyline the pair come to blows once again as Gail forms a friendship with undertaker George Shuttleworth (played by Tony Maudsley) after discovering he is her long-lost cousin.
However Eileen, who has been flirting with George, gets the wrong impression and thinks Gail is trying to steal her man, leading to plenty of socially-distanced sparring between the pair.
Speaking about the pair’s feud, Sue, who plays Eileen, said: ‘George is definitely a feature but let’s be honest the don’t need any reason to fall out at all this is their blood sport they’re like two 15-year-old girls in the school playground, and Eileen loves nothing more than winding up Gail.’
Drama! Hele spoke about the legendary scenes which saw Gail lash out at Eileen after learning her daughter Sarah Platt was pregnant with Todd Grimshaw’s child
Friends or foes? The new plot sees the pair verbally sparring following a mix-up, as Eileen accuses Gail of trying to steal her man
Helen added: ‘Just because they spar in the street and knock six bells out of each other doesn’t mean they don’t care because they do.’
Sue added: ‘Because we care so much, we hate each other so much there is a huge depth of emotion there, and we have seen it occasionally in the past where we’ve rallied to check each other’s OK.
‘We need to see those sparring women, women of a certain age behaving atrociously.’
What’s going on? In upcoming scenes Gail tries to discover more about her family history, after finding a picture of a woman called Fanny
While many of the pairs fights are carefully choreographed and rehearsed, Sue went onto reveal she did suffer a nasty injury when a scripted punch went terribly wrong.
She said: ‘That was a storyline when Leslie had Alzhemier’s and we’d rehearsed this upward punch which is not a very safe one to do.
‘And then she did it and go it wrong and smacked me right up out cold on the floor, they sent me to the hospital but they still used the sound on the clip.’
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV. Coronation Street continues tonight at 7:30pm on ITV.
Oh dear! After discovering George Shuttleworth is her cousin, Gail forms a friendship with him, which infuriates Eileen as the pair had been flirting for weeks