Coronation Street, ITV1

12:16pm Saturday 19th January 2008

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Last night's telly marked the end of an era.

And sales of Kleenex possibly doubled as the nation cried - because I am certain I was not alone as I watched Coronation Street with tear-blurred vision.

It's not often that the departure of one character can have such an impact.

Many actors and actresses come and go over the years without so much as a quick glance back and before the week is out they are forgotten forever in the next big storyline.

But Vera Duckworth's dramatic, tear-jerking final scenes will go down in soap land history books.

Jack and Vera have been one of Britain's best loved TV duos for nearly three decades.

And watching her in her final moments just as the pair were due to start their new life in Blackpool was the saddest TV I've seen in a long time. A real lip wobbler!

We have watched on as the love-hate couple have entered a new chapter in their lives, where there are far fewer arguments and that old humour that we have all grown to love.

But we have just been building up to a fall. And I know it has been Weatherfield's best kept secret that Vera was going to die and it wasn't even a secret that it was going to be last night.

But it was still something of a shock. Corrie without Vera just seems wrong.

The veteran actress Liz Dawn has played the lovable brassy loudmouth since 1974, appearing in more than 3,000 episodes.

It's fair to say it just won't be the same without her.