Fans were shocked to learn that Coronation Street favourite Channique Sterling-Brown would be leaving the show. The actress posted on Instagram in October to say that she’d just finished filming her final scenes as Dee-Dee Bailey, as she prepared to pursue new projects.

She wrote: ‘After three whirlwind years of Dee-Dee Bailey, I’ve decided to say farewell to the cobbles. Bittersweet to be saying goodbye, but I am so excited for pastures new and enjoying the end of playing Princess Diana and her many expressions.’

Dee-Dee has certainly had a dramatic time in her three years in Weatherfield. Coming into the show as the loveably ditsy but super-smart lawyer daughter of Ed Bailey (Trevor Michael Georges), she soon became embroiled in a huge storyline when she started a relationship with Joel Deering (Calum Lill) – who turned out to be a vile abuser.

The Joel storyline came to its conclusion with the villain eventually being killed by Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton), the young woman who’d been one of his victims.

Then Dee-Dee discovered she was pregnant with his child. After much soul-searching about whether to keep the baby or not, she eventually decided to have the child because its half sibling, Lauren’s son Frankie, needed a bone marrow transplant and Dee-Dee’s baby cold have been a donor.

The birth of baby Laila was traumatic for Dee-Dee, who was subjected to racism from the maternity ward staff and nearly died because her concerns weren’t taken seriously.

She decided to let her brother James (Jason Callender) adopt the baby, but realised that she couldn’t bear to be parted from her and took the decision to keep her. James was initially devastated, but eventually he and Dee-Dee agreed that they would co-parent the little girl.

Life has been looking much more settled for Dee-Dee recently after she embarked on a romantic relationship with Ollie Driscoll (Raphael Akuwudike).

Dee-Dee was initially wary of him after having had such a bad experience with Joel, but things have been going well and Dee-Dee was welcomed into Ollie’s family when his dad Ben (Aaron McCusker) and step-mum Eva Price (Catherine Tyldesley) took over the running of the Rovers.