Corrie's Vera Is Killed Off

The character of Vera Duckworth is to be killed off in a tear-jerking Coronation Street storyline to be screened early next year.

Her departure will be filmed in top secret and viewers will not know how she dies until they watch her final episode.

Liz Dawn, who has played Vera for more than three decades, is leaving the show due to ill health, admitting she is barely able to walk across the set.

A lifelong smoker, she was diagnosed with lung disease emphysema five years ago.

68-year-old Liz revealed the disease had taken such a toll that she nearly collapsed while at Buckingham Palace to collect her MBE in 2000.

The actress quit smoking in 2002 after her diagnosis.