Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street star Bill Fellows has spoken out on his exit from the soap, after three years playing Stu Carpenter.
Fans will see Stu’s final scenes play out tonight (October 14), with the episode already available to watch on ITVX.
With Stu and his partner Yasmeen Metcalfe at loggerheads over Mason Radcliffe’s presence in Yasmeen’s house, Mason reveals tonight that a social worker has found him a new place to live.
With Stu realising that his attempts to help Mason have put Yasmeen and her business in jeopardy, he makes the decision to move to Germany to live with his granddaughter Eliza, and says his goodbyes to Yasmeen and Weatherfield.
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Fellows has now revealed that it was always his intention to leave the soap after three years, saying that he is ready to take on new roles again.
“When I first started it was a six-month contract but with options that took me over three years,” he said. “I am used to playing lots of different characters and three years seemed a long time to play the same character.”
Adding that he “needn’t have worried”, he said: “The three years have flown and this felt like the right time to go, I always knew I would go at the end of the three years.”
Fellows said that he has “no regrets at all” about his time on Corrie, explaining that “it is the right time to go for me and for Stu”.
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“I will look back with fond memories and I wouldn’t rule out coming back in the future,” he said.
“But Stu has evolved, we started off with a homeless guy who was wrongly accused of murder and then we get to the point three years later where this guy’s got almost a quarter of a million pounds and has cleared his name and made a life for himself.
“I’m really pleased with the story, because it’s been fully, fully formed.”
Speaking about Stu’s final weeks in Weatherfield, Fellows revealed that he has been pleased to see Stu coming “full circle” by trying to help Mason make a fresh start after his prison stint.
“I was glad that we have revisited the original Stu and his history,” he said, recalling Stu’s introduction in 2021 as an ally for Kelly Neelan when she was briefly homeless after leaving prison.
“Now he is trying to help someone else who he believes should be given a second chance,” he added. “So we have come full circle.
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“He believes that people should have a chance to redeem themselves, he wouldn’t write someone off because they have been in prison.”
The actor added that the door is being left open for a potential return for his character in the future, saying that “it is good to know that Stu is out there somewhere helping people”.
Fellows also revealed that he almost played an entirely different Corrie character before landing the role of Stu.
“I auditioned for the role of Roy’s brother, Nina’s dad, before I got the role of Stu,” he said.
“I wasn’t right for the part but it was for three weeks so it was fate really, because I got this part and stayed three years. I am so proud to have been in Corrie.”
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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