We've watched her grow from a little girl to a sexy young woman on Coronation Street. But tonight actress Helen Flanagan bids a final farewell as soap minx Rosie Webster.

Helen made the decision to call time on her Coronation Street career after playing Rosie for 12 years – since she was just nine. It’s a role as intertwined with her childhood for Helen as it is for us viewers, who have watched her transform from schoolgirl to a screen siren.

She says: "I’ve been on the show since childhood, so it’s been my life, really, on-screen and off-screen. I feel really blessed to have been involved in the show.

"But that’s the reason that I’m leaving, too. I’ve been on it for such a long time, I felt I needed some time to be myself. I don’t think I’d ever be able to truly grow as a person without having that break away from it."

Tonight it’s a predictably Rosie exit for the character – as she heads off to London to seek fame and fortune, leaving behind her boyfriend Jason Grimshaw, played by Ryan Thomas.

Helen laughs: "It was the perfect exit for Rosie." But she adds: "It’s all come around so quickly, and now it’s those final scenes. But I’m just so, so excited about the future and I’m so happy right now."

See below for a look back at Rosie through the years on Coronation Street ...

A lot of that happiness is wrapped up with Helen’s personal life. Since filming her final scenes on Corrie just before Christmas, the 21-year-old has moved from Manchester to a new home in Swansea to be with her Premier League footballer boyfriend Scott Sinclair, 22.

She says: "We’ve been together two years now, but we’ve been living apart so it’s just so nice to be able to spend more time together." It will be with Scott that she will watch those final dramatic scenes, screened on ITV1 tonight at 7.30pm and 8.30pm.

She tells me she chose not to have a leaving do, but her pals presented her with a necklace on her last day.

She says: "I was going to have a leaving do, but then I thought the people I work with, they’re my friends for life so I didn’t need to have a leaving party. My last day was one I will never forget."

It’s fair to say Helen will never forget her first day on the soap either – back on January 23, 2000, when she took over the role of Rosie. The young Boltonian was warmly welcomed by her co-stars, and her soap family – mum Sally, played by Sally Dynevor, dad Kevin, actor Michael Le Vell, and sister Sophie, Brooke Vincent – who she admits are like a second family now.

Helen also got on well with Corrie producer Phil Collinson and was pleased with the way he scripted Rosie out of the show.

She says: "He said he'd leave the door open to Rosie, which is just so lovely of him. It has just been so beautifully written, I couldn't have asked for more."

Helen has been lucky to have all manner of crazy storylines over the years. Memorably the schoolgirl Rosie seduced her teacher John Stape, who went crazy and kidnapped her, before he turned into the street’s latest serial killer – and then kidnapped her again!

She’s dabbled with blackmail, became a topless model, and at one point thought she was about to live her dream of becoming a footballers’ WAG. Her screen boyfriends have included Craig Harris, played by Richard Fleeshman.

As for her ambitions? She’s not sure, but says she wouldn’t mind a role in one of ITV’s other most talked-about shows. She beams: "It would be great to do a period drama, like Downton Abbey. I’d also love to play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet."

Rosie may be gone, but it’s just the beginning of a rosy future for Helen.

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