Coronation Street star Colson Smith has spoken for the first time about his character’s heartbreaking death, as his final scenes in the long-running show aired.

It hasn’t been a secret that the actor would be bowing out of the ITV soap after nearly 14 years in the role of Craig Tinker, with him confirming the news earlier this year.

Colson, who joined Corrie in 2011, posted a statement on social media, before later revealing the news was going to be leaked and he wanted to be the one to share the news himself.

At the time, he posted a picture of himself in his alter-ego’s police uniform on the cobbles and said: “Autumn last year I was told that Craig Tinker’s time on the Cobbles is to come to end in 2025.

“I’ve loved every single second of my 14-year stay as a resident on the greatest street in the world. I feel incredibly lucky to have grown up in, on and around Coronation Street. I’ve learned pretty much everything about life from the people who call it home. I’m excited to play out the exit story for Our Craigy.”

The 26-year-old added: “For me, this is just the end of the beginning. I genuinely can’t wait to see what chapter 2 has in store for me. LONG LIVE THE COBBLES!”

Colson later explained that Corrie’s newest producer Kate Brooks informed him of the decision during a late-night meeting at the soap’s Trafford-based set, with her confirming that it was time to write the character out of the long-running show, ahead of marking 14 years in Weatherfield this summer.

After filming his final scenes in March, Corrie viewers finally witnessed how Craig was written out of the popular soap – and it’s fair to say it was devastating as the police officer ended up dying in the line of duty, having been attacked by Mick Michaelis while trying to arrest him.

Following Wednesday’s (May 21) dramatic and emotional episode, Colson spoke in his first interview, telling the Manchester Evening News that he’s happy with his exit – and confirmed you won’t see him coming back as a ghostly spirit any time soon.

He told us: “When I was in the chat with Kate, 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 knew exactly how it works. So I knew that my time was up and I knew that Craig had backed himself into a corner that would be really hard to get out of.

“I fully expected to the chat to go that way and in the conversation with Kate, there’d been about 20 minutes of Kate talking to me but we hadn’t touched on when or how or who or what. So I kind of stopped Kate and said, ‘I have two questions… One is when and two is do I get killed?’

“She kind of stopped and stumbled a bit and I said, ‘If it makes it easier for you, the right answer is yes’. For me to go, I’d want to die. I would want the door to be shut so that I could 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 it would be very unlikely and knowing it would feel like unfinished business and an unfinished job. So I think Craig dying in the line of duty, that kind of hero’s death, was by far the most perfect story for the exit.”

Colson added: “It feels like it’s done. It feels like it’s finished. I’ve got everything I’ve got from Coronation Street and that’s it now. So it felt very much like a thank you, a goodbye, a goodnight type thing because I know there’s no return for Craig and Colson in the future.

“I have spoken to people who have left and not been killed, and I just feel like, for me, it was 100 per cent the right way to know I’m not coming back.” He laughed: “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!”

Describing filming what was the lead-up and the actual moment of Craig’s exit, Colson said it was ‘mint’. He said: “I enjoyed it. I was very lucky because we work with different directors all the time at Corrie and we were working with Duncan Foster on this block and he’s done so many big blocks over like 30 years. I think he said I was the 40th person he’d killed.

“But you instantly feel in safe hands and you feel when you’re on set that you’re doing something special. So I felt very lucky with that. Then as the week unfolded, the Monday episode we’ve seen Craig going for his life, ‘life’s amazing, life’s so good, everyone loves me’…

“It set him up for this downfall and it was basically fun to have scenes with almost everybody on the Street and having that interaction, knowing that it leads to Craig and Mick in the precinct at the end of the day.”

With there now no going back when it comes to Corrie, Colson teased what’s next for him in his career. “What is next for me? I’ve always just enjoyed going to work. I’ve always enjoyed working. I make no secret that I want to be a presenter. That’s where my love and passion lies at the moment.

“Ever since starting On The Sofa with Jack [P Shepherd] and Ben [Price] and doing different bits of TV like The Games and Celebrity Big Brother, I enjoy being Colson and I enjoy telling stories, I enjoy holding a show and being direct down a lens to camera. I also enjoy going to work.”

He added: “I’m looking forward to playing a character that isn’t Craig. I’m looking forward to getting back into acting, and comedy acting and really being a character and developing something because after 14 years of the same thing, you kind of have a taste for something else. As to what’s next, there are irons in the fire but I’ll do the typical showbiz thing of teasing…”

But that’s not to say he won’t miss what he’s left behind. “You would say the people but you do keep in touch.,” Colson explained when asked what he’d miss most. “Obviously I’ll miss the green room. The green room is the best place to be as an actor. You spend more time there than your own home. That’s what I’ll miss.

“I’ll miss, in a really weird way, and this is so hard for people to understand in your life and other people’s lives, but when at Corrie, the whole building is literally a family. It almost holds more weight, at times, than your own family and your own life and I will miss that because that has been my life and once you’re out, you are out.

“You share so much with each other, you share so much time and so much understanding that I’ll miss being that little brother, that son, or that grandchild for all the people in the building – and I’m not just talking about the cast. I’m talking about the whole way it works….”