Former Coronation Street star Colson Smith has already signed on the dotted line for his new job, just days after his brutal final scenes.
The actor, 26, joined the ITV soap in 2011 – but confirmed earlier this year that he had been axed.
‘Autumn last year I was told that Craig Tinker’s time on the Cobbles is to come to end in 2025,’ he wrote on Instagram at the time.
‘I’ve loved every single second of my 14 year stay as a resident on the greatest street in the world. I feel incredibly lucky to have grown up in, on and around Coronation Street.
‘I’ve learned pretty much everything about life from the people who call it home. I’m excited to play out the exit story for our Craigy. For me, this is the end of the beginning.
‘I genuinely can’t wait to see what chapter two has in store for me.’
His on-screen death played out in last week’s special set of instalments.
Amid the feud between Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) and Mick Michaelis (Joe Layton), Craig was caught in the crossfire and viciously attacked with a baseball bat.
Mick fled the scene, allowing the copper to bleed to death on the floor.
After receiving medical attention at the scene, Craig was rushed to Weathy General. A short time afterwards, he went into cardiac arrest and passed away.
Just after his last scenes aired, Colson jumped onto social media to share his thanks to viewers and also to announce his new role.
‘Thank you so much for all the love this week! I really appreciate it,’ he said.
‘Some of you have been asking, what next for me? There’s a few exciting things going off!
‘BUT one thing I can tell you for now, is that I’m joining the team at BBC Radio Leeds this summer!! Catch ya on the wireless in Yorkshire!!’
Alongside the statement he added pictures of himself with a BBC logo fixed to the side of the studios, and another of a microphone.
‘For me to go, I would want to leave,’ he explained.
‘I would want to die, I would want the door to be shut, so then I can know in my head that Corrie has been this, Corrie has done that, and it is now done, and Craig’s journey is over.
‘So in a really weird way, it was the right thing for me to be killed. I didn’t want that “we might have you back”, knowing that it would be very unlikely, and knowing that it would feel a bit like unfinished business and an unfinished job.
‘So I think Craig dying, and Craig dying in the line of duty as a copper, that kind of hero’s death was by far the most perfect story for the exit.’
