Colson Smith won't be returning to Coronation Street as a ghost
Colson Smith won't be returning to 'Coronation Street' in the future as a ghost after his alter ego Craig Tinker was killed off on the ITV soap.
Colson Smith won't be returning to 'Coronation Street' in the future as a ghost.
The 26-year-old actor left the ITV soap on Wednesday (21.05.25) after 14 years when his alter ego, PC Craig Tinker, was killed off after dying from the injuries he sustained after being brutally attacked by Mick Michaelis (Joe Layton) and has revealed that he wanted his departure from Weatherfield to be final.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other media, Colson said: "I did say I won't be coming back as a ghost. I was like: 'The day I leave, will be the day that I leave!'"
Colson found out last year that he was being written out of the show and he felt that his exit storyline was the perfect way for his policeman character to leave as he would die a "hero's death".
He said: "I'd already braced myself for what was about to happen. I'd been in that building since I was 12 years old, so I know exactly how it works. So I knew that my time was up and I knew that Craig had backed himself into a corner that was gonna be really hard to get out of.
"So I fully expected the chat [with producer Kate Brooks] to go that way. In the conversation with Kate, there'd been about 20 minutes of Kate kind of, talking to me, but we hadn't touched on when, or how, or who or what.
"So I kind of stopped Kate and said, 'Look, I have two questions: one is when, and two is do I get killed?' And she kind of stopped and stumbled a little bit; and I said, 'If it makes it easier for you, the right answer for me is Yes.'
"For me to go, I would want to die, I would want the door to be shut so then I can kind of know in my head that Corrie has been this, Corrie has done that and it is now done, and Craig's journey is over.
"So in a really weird way, it was the right thing for me to be killed. I didn't want that, 'We might have you back', knowing that it would be very unlikely and knowing that it would feel a bit like unfinished business and an unfinished job.
"I think Craig dying, and Craig dying in the line of duty as a copper, that kind of hero's death was by far the most perfect story for the exit."
