SARAH: MY HEART ISN'T IN IT; Homesick star quits show.
TV favourite Sarah Lancashire has sensationally quit top ITV drama Where The Heart Is.Show bosses tried desperately to keep Sarah, who plays the much-loved character, community nurse Ruth Goddard. But the actress famous as Coronation Street barmaid Raquel rejected offers of more money. She insisted she was leaving the Sunday night hit, which attracts 12million viewers.
Blonde Sarah, 33, is fed up with being apart from her family while filming in West Yorkshire.
She has already signed up for a new ITV drama called The Factory, which starts shooting in a few weeks' time.
Sarah tearfully bowed out from Where The Heart Is after filming for the current run finished several weeks ago.
The news is a blow for the series, co-starring Pam Ferris as Peggy Snow and set in quiet Skelthwaite.
It is currently TV's third most successful show after Coronation Street and EastEnders.
An ITV insider said: "Sarah made up her mind she wanted to move on to do something else.
"No matter how much they tried to persuade her - and they really did - she was having none of it.
"She was sick of being away from home and her children. She also didn't want to end up being in the show for as long as she was in the Street, for fear of getting stale."
Lancashire-born Sarah is a single mum to sons Thomas, 11 and Matthew, eight, since splitting with husband Gary Hargreaves. She lives in upmarket Bowdon, Cheshire.
Producers were so worried about the effect of her departure on ratings that they banned her from the recent press launch, in case she let the news slip.
ITV feared that if they didn't offer her another meaty project they would lose her to a rival channel.
So Sarah has top billing in The Factory, a flagship project for the Millennium.
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| Author: | Graham, Polly |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Apr 30, 1999 |
| Words: | 305 |
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