There’s a tragic bereavement coming up in Coronation Street soon as Evelyn Plummer (Maureen Lipman)’s beloved dog Cerberus dies.
Cerberus, a brown and white greyhound, has been by Evelyn’s side for nearly five years, so she feels the loss deeply. Maureen Lipman told us that filming the scenes of the dog’s death brought back memories of losing her own dog recently.
‘I had to say goodbye to my real dog on Zoom, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to imagine this,’ she told us. ‘I really liked Cerberus, Boss is his name and he’s a lovely dog, seriously sweet natured and an incredibly beautiful hound. Gorgeous.’
She revealed that it seemed that Boss knew that his days on Corrie were numbered. ‘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.’
Cerberus falls ill as a result of a rare piece of Roy Cropper (David Neilson) carelessness, Maureen explained.
‘He’s the one who’s allowed an Eccles cake to be on his floor and currents/grapes/raisins are poisonous to dogs. It all starts with Cerberus not wanting his dinner, Evelyn dismisses it as an upset stomach, then she goes to the vet and they find that his kidneys are failing. She still says she wants a second opinion, this is ridiculous, she doesn’t want to believe it!’
Maureen said that the actual scenes where Cerberus has to be put to sleep were hard for everyone concerned.
‘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. He’s only 9. My dog was 16 and it was shocking, they are like a member of the family.’
One of the highlights of Boss’s time on the show was when he met the late Queen and Maureen recounted the occasion.
‘This is the dog that the Queen said when she came to the set “Is he a good actor?” And I said “Well I keep a lot of liver in my vest, ma’am!” Which is true, I would have liver all over the pockets and everything,’ she recalled.
In typical Evelyn style, Maureen told us that her character is determined to carry on even while acknowledging the huge hole that’s been left in her life by her dog’s death.
‘When you lose a dog it’s like losing a husband or a partner, all the routines have to change and nobody wants a miserable bugger, so she feels she has to learn to not think about it too much and get on with her life,’ she said.
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