SOAP ACTRESS BEVERLEY Callard has joined the cast of Fair City. 

Callard, who is best known for playing matriarch and Rovers Return landlady Liz McDonald for over 30 years on Coronation Street, will make her debut in Carrigstown on 19 February. 

RTÉ confirmed the news this morning, saying Fair City viewers “won’t want to miss what she brings to the community”.

According to the broadcaster, Callard will play Lily, the long-lost mother of Gwen Connolly, played by Emily Lamey. 

“Quirky, unpredictable and sharp as a tack, she carries just enough edge to keep Carrigstown on its toes,” it said. 

Callard's first episode will air next month. RTÉ RTÉ

Fair City executive producer Bridget de Courcy told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that they began designing the character of Lily two years ago and are “absolutely delighted” to have cast Callard.

“I can’t tell you too many stories at all because they’re all to be unveiled as the time goes on,” she said, though she added that the character will be “quite different” to Liz McDonald. 

“She started actually filming yesterday, which is very exciting for everybody,” de Courcy added. 

Callard first appeared as Liz McDonald in Corrie in 1989. She left nine years later, before returning to the cobbles in 2000. 

She would go on to depart and rejoin the cast several times over the years and had a number of notable storylines involving failed marriages, feuds and tragedies, cementing herself as one of the most beloved characters in the long-running ITV soap.

Callard left Coronation Street permanently in June 2020, having appeared in over 2,300 episodes of the programme. 

Fair City’s future in Donnybrook

De Courcy was also asked about plans for Fair City to be filmed away from the Donnybrook campus. 

Speaking at an Oireachtas Committee in December, Director General Kevin Bakhurst said the soap will have to be made “off site” as RTÉ’s presence on the campus reduces.

Bakhurst said that the organisation was exploring whether it would continue as a “fully independent” or “hybrid” production.

Asked when this change was going to happen, de Courcy said: “I have absolutely no idea.

“The director general hasn’t confided in me at all, and I’m sure somebody’s working away in the background about this,” she said.

“We have two hours of television to make every week, and really, I don’t have much time to be thinking about that at the moment.”

She said that while there is “a bit of chat” around the move, the cast and crew have to “keep our heads down and keep working at what we’re doing”. 

“Somebody will tell us one of the days what’s happening, but I don’t know what the plans are.”