Coleen Nolan is a regular on Loose Women, so it’s difficult to picture the show without her, but she did leave… briefly.
After little over a decade on the ITV panel programme, the 58-year-old resigned away in 2011.
If you work for a good company and haven’t irritated too many people, you’ll frequently get a lovely send-off. Loose Women did precisely that with The Nolans vocalist Coleen, dedicating an entire show to her departure.
It opened with heartfelt tributes from fellow panellists Denise Welch, Kate Thorton, and Sherrie Hewson, followed by similarly gushy interviews with John Barrowman and Brian Connolly, who were expressly invited as her all-time favourite guests.
Following there were gifts – a massive dessert and a nurse costume in recognition of her revelation that she likes to dress up for then-husband Ray Fensome – and a somewhat lengthy best bits compilation.
They left the best for last, as Coleen sang Say Goodbye Today by Carole King, backed by a pianist and a guitarist.
She sobbed her way through the song, but with slightly amended lyrics to represent her experience on the daytime programme, such as altering ‘Two hungry voices’ to ‘Four hungry voices’ in the first stanza.
Coleen could barely get through the final sentence, ‘I can’t believe we’re saying goodbye today,’ owing to her sobbing.
When she finished, the studio erupted in applause, and she was joined on stage by her fellow Loose Women, who came armed with flowers and wrapped her in heartfelt hugs.
What occurred next makes the entire episode feel a little out of place – Coleen returned to the programme just over two years later – two years and three months to be exact. Coleen was absent from Loose Women for less time than Boris Johnson was as Prime Minister. She triumphantly returned in October 2013 and is still a regular panellist.
When she sang, ‘It could have been a lifetime’ what she really meant is ‘It would be a lifetime’.
After group Best Pop Culture published a part, a clip from the farewell episode began spreading on TikTok.
The video has received over 850k views in 24 hours, and viewers have expressed their delight in the comments area.
One person wrote: ‘Me saying bye to all my primary school friends in year 6 knowing damn well we’re going to the same high school’.
‘This is so camp I’m obsessed,’ shared another.
‘Me leaving work before I go on holiday x’ and ‘Help this is so funny’ were also amongst the reactions.
On 28 July 2011, Loose Women and Coleen truly set the bar for achieving the most, and we should all strive to achieve their level.
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.
