Coronation Street bosses have finalised plans for Deirdre Barlow’s exit storyline, after checking details with Anne Kirkbride’s family to make sure she would get a send-off fit for a soap legend.

Deirdre was played by Anne for 42 years, until the actress lost her battle with cancer and died in January this year.

Since then, Deirdre’s absence from the ITV soap has been explained with the line that she is visiting a friend in the south.

Anne Kirkbride as Deirdre Barlow
Anne Kirkbride played Deirdre Barlow in Coronation Street (ITV)

According to the Daily Mirror, her exit from Weatherfield will play out in the summer and the show’s other actors will be filming the scenes surrounding it in the coming weeks.

A Corrie insider was quoted by the newspaper as saying: “Trying to come up with a fitting departure for Deirdre has not been easy. Everyone was still feeling emotional after Anne’s death. We were keen not to rush it.

“It is never easy coming up with plausible ways of writing out a much-loved character after their real-life death.

Coronation Street
Anne Kirkbride starred as Deirdre alongside William Roache as husband Ken (ITV)

“Scriptwriters have held many meetings trying to come up with suitable ideas, and Anne’s family have been kept in the loop. We have to be sensitive to their feelings and also account for Deirdre being a much-loved Street character.

“Her exit will be treated with dignity and will be fit for a legend.”

Anne had kept the seriousness of her illness from her castmates when she took time off in September.

A Coronation Street spokesman said: “We have finalised details for a plot explaining ­Deirdre’s departure, which will be screened in the summer.”