Farewell Tina

Farewell Tina was a half hour programme made to mark the departure of Michelle Keegan from Coronation Street and was transmitted on Friday 6th June 2014 at 8.00pm, five days after her final episode was transmitted.

The programme concentrated on an extensive interview with Michelle and took viewers through her upbringing and her ambitions to be an actress from an early age following a childhood obsession with Neighbours and the characters of Scott and Charlene as played by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue. Home videos of Michelle performing to the camera in the living room and in a school play were shown together with interviews with her parents Mike Keegan and Jackie Thornton. The programme related how she took acting lessons at drama school in the evening from her job at Manchester Airport in May 2007, signed on with an agent in October 2007 and gained the role of Tina one month later. Part of the programme showed the audition tape with fellow cast member and interviewee Jack P. Shepherd, shot on 13th November 2007, which Michelle was filmed watching for the first time.

Following her progress in the programme, several storylines involving Tina were highlighted: the abortion of the baby fathered by David Platt, Joe McIntyre's death and her affair with Peter Barlow. Behind the scenes shots of the character's fall from the balcony of the Builder's Yard and her eventual death directed by Tony Prescott marked the climax of the programme. Michelle was also shown leaving the studios after her final day of filming on 17th April 2014.

Also contributing were Paula Lane, Helen Worth, Ryan Thomas, Beverley Callard, Chris Gascoyne, Stuart Blackburn and fiancé Mark Wright

The programme was narrated by regular cast member Sally Dynevor, the Executive Producer was Mark Robinson and it was both produced and directed by Patrick Talbot.