Coronation Street veteran Maureen Lipman explains why she's stepping back from soap

Since her arrival on the cobbles, Lipman has been a regular face in Weatherfield, but is now set to cut back her appearances.

Speaking to The Sun, 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."

Speaking about her recent real-life engagement to partner David Turner, Lipman said: "David and I are thinking of having a bit of a gap year."

As for how she's set to leave Corrie? Well, Lipman reveals that her exit storyline will be tied up in the fact that Evelyn becomes a mature student and goes off to study law at university, prompted by Roy Cropper (David Neilson).

While details are yet to be released by ITV, fans can expect that it will be a fitting farewell to the character.

As for what Lipman will be doing in the future, she did say that the door will be left open for Evelyn to "be in and out of" Coronation Street, so it's not a definitive goodbye.

In terms of new roles on the horizon, Lipman also told The Sun: "I’m waiting to see what’s out there once I’m out there. There’s got to be something that Lesley Manville and Brenda Blethyn and Harriet Walters don’t play that I could do."

It was previously announced back in July that Lipman would be taking a short break from Coronation Street in order star in Richmond Theatre's annual pantomime, having also temporarily departed last year to appear in her one-woman West End play Rose.

Earlier this year, Lipman offered up her view on the soap's darker storylines, saying on the Beyond the Title podcast: "We've come to a point in Corrie now where people are getting murdered in knicker factories.

"We're having domestic abuse. Anything that ticks the box of social problems in the 21st century is going to be in your local soap."

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