The Mollie Gallagher Nina exit from Coronation Street airs on Sunday 30 August, but the actress has made clear she is not ready to close the door on Weatherfield for good, keeping one of Nina’s coats as insurance against a future call-back.
Gallagher, who is 28, has played Nina Lucas on the ITV soap since 2019, according to The Independent, a six-year run in which Nina became one of the street’s most talked-about characters. Her departure was announced in June, but Gallagher has been candid that walking away was far from straightforward.
‘I kept my favourite coat of hers,’ she said. ‘I hope it isn’t the end of Nina, and I didn’t want to take her best things in case I ever get a call back. I don’t have any mementos other than Nina herself.’
The sentiment goes deeper than a wardrobe choice. ‘I felt like the way I developed Nina, a part of her came into me, and I think that’s what happens when you play a character for a long time,’ Gallagher explained. ‘You genuinely change.’
A positive send-off for Nina Lucas
Fans bracing for heartbreak can breathe easy: the Mollie Gallagher Nina exit is being played as a hopeful one. ‘The exit feels true to her character,’ Gallagher said. ‘It is a really positive move for Nina; there is no tragedy, and she was able to go off happily to this new life. She is sad to leave Roy and her friends, but she knows it is the right thing to do.’
Nina’s final scenes are described as a ‘casual’ affair. ‘The last scene I filmed was actually just a really nice, casual scene,’ Gallagher noted. ‘I had two lines, and it was with Sally Carman, Tony Maudsley, Gareth Pierce and a few others. There were quite a lot of people there. It was a nice goodbye.’ Characters including Abi Webster, George Shuttleworth and Todd Grimshaw also feature in her exit.
The goodbye carries particular weight given how much Nina has been through in Weatherfield. The Independent reports that during Gallagher’s time on the soap, Nina was injured in a hate crime that resulted in the death of her boyfriend Seb Franklin, played by Harry Visinoni. It was among the most affecting storylines the show has run in recent years, and it cemented Gallagher’s place as one of the soap’s key performers.
Through it all, Nina’s anchor in the cobbles has been David Neilson’s Roy Cropper, with whom she works at Roy’s Rolls. Before filming her final scenes, Gallagher sought out her co-star for a word of advice.
‘I had spoken to David about it anyway, and he told me to go with my gut,’ she recalled. ‘He’s an intuitive person, and he agreed that it was the right thing to do. I didn’t want to leave, so it was a difficult decision, but he said I had to do what I felt was right for me.’
What Mollie Gallagher is doing next
Post-Weatherfield, Gallagher is heading straight into new territory. She is set to star alongside John Partridge and Oliver Farnworth in a theatre production of The Silence of the Lambs, and it is a meaty part. Speaking on This Morning, Gallagher confirmed she will be taking on the role of Clarice Starling in the production, stepping into one of cinema’s most iconic characters.
It is a bold leap from soap to stage, and a clear sign that Gallagher is treating the post-Corrie chapter seriously rather than treating Nina’s exit as a pause. Yet the kept coat tells its own story: she has not entirely ruled out the call that brings her back to Roy’s Rolls.
Coronation Street airs on weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX. Nina Lucas’s final scenes air on Sunday 30 August.
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