Maureen Lipman says she blocked out the memories of filming her final scenes with her canine co-star on Coronation Street.
The ITV soap will bid farewell to Evelyn's pooch Cerebus this week in sad scenes after he falls ill. Cerebus is played by a white and brown greyhound, whose real name is Boss, and it seems like he knew his time was up on the show.
Maureen explained how Boss seemed "a bit subdued" before filming his final scenes, as she opened up on her real life and raw connection to the storyline and how she had to bid farewell to her own dog recently.
"It was as if he had an inkling that he was being written out! He was a bit subdued for a couple of days. He was valiant and that made it even sadder," she explained to Metro ahead of the emotional scenes airing this week.
She added: "I had to say goodbye to my real dog on Zoom, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine this. I really liked Cerberus, Boss is his name and he’s a lovely dog, seriously sweet natured and an incredibly beautiful hound. Gorgeous."
Cerebus falls ill when he accidentally eats some Eccles cake that has fallen on the floor.
As a result of consuming the raisins from the cake, Cerebus seems off his food, before it's realised that he has consumed the poisonous fruit and as a result goes into kidney failure before sadly being put to sleep.
"It is really sad. It was only a few weeks ago but I’ve blocked out filming it. He was so brave to the last, he just lay there, we were all on the floor with this beautiful soul. Obviously the dog is actually fine but I really miss him," she said.
"He's only 9. My dog was 16 and it was shocking, they are like a member of the family."
Maureen has ruled out a possibility of romance for Evelyn and Roy, but says the two characters still lean on one another.
"I don’t think Evelyn has the hots for Roy, or him for her. It's lukewarm at best and I don’t think she’s going to get her vest off. But there are many forms of love – they’re lonely people. She had the chance for romance with Arthur and sort of blew it," she said.
"I think the stable door is shut and the horse has bolted. She does want to spend time with him as Roy understands about grieving. He gets where she’s coming from – it doesn’t take much to bring her round because she knows where her bread’s best buttered."
