Corrie's Bev reveals she's still on depression medication

(Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Coronation Street's Beverley Callard has admitted she is still taking medication for depression.

The actress, who is about to return to the ITV soap as Liz McDonald, left in 2011 as she was suffering from depression during which she was treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Beverley, who also struggled with financial problems and lost her mum to Alzheimer's last year, told the Radio Times: "I have been very poorly in the past and Jon (her husband) was worried that I hadn't given myself enough time to be me. So I'm trying to be more sensible about things this time, although I do find it so hard.

"I'm climbing back up again. I am still skint, but I'm hoping that things are getting better. I don't have any health fears, but I do still take medication.

"However, my mum's death from Alzheimer's last year was just horrific - the person who you love just dies in front of you, but the fact that they're still there physically is just the worst thing. Before she died, I was feeling guilty because work meant that I didn't see enough of her. But, fortunately, in her last few months both my sister and myself got to spend a lot of time with her."

Beverley, 56, said that when she left Coronation Street she had believed she would not return to the soap.

She said: "I agonised about going but, as far as my health was concerned, I'd completely overdone it. I was taken into hospital in February 2009, given 12 lots of ECT, loads of different anti-depressants that didn't work and was back on set in June to film Steve and Becky's wedding.

"I didn't take enough time to get well, that was the thing. But I was so aware that I was letting everyone down and that scripts were being rewritten."

Liz returns to Weatherfield from Spain later this month when son Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) takes over the Rovers Return again.

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.