Peter Ash’s exit has been confirmed in Coronation Street, following the news Paul Foreman is dying after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
For Daniel Brocklebank, who plays Billy Mayhew – Paul’s partner – this means working with his co-star for one final time in a highly emotional storyline.
‘Even though we know it isn’t real, knowing that Pete’s time to show is now coming to an end, there is a deep sadness in that’, he explained to Metro.co.uk recently.
‘I mean, Jane Hazlegrove, who plays Bernie, she can’t keep up bloody eyes dry at all! She sees Pete limping onto the set and she’s welling up. We’re grieving Peter leaving, Peter’s not dying but the emotions are genuine.’
Discussing his character’s reaction to the news about Paul, he said: ‘Obviously, Billy being Billy he does the research on what the potential outcome is, especially as he’s not been there through the initial diagnosis and journey with him. Of course, he’s devastated. I think it’s a difficult thing as he’s going to be stuck in between being a pastoral role, but also, this is a personal journey, so it’s not the same as a parishioner.
‘He’s very, very aware that that time together is coming to an end. And their time as it stands, is coming to an end, because of course the longer it goes on, the less Paul will be able to do. I think he’s sort of trying to live every moment as we all should, really through general life, because I think we all forget that our time is tied up for all of us anyway. We all get so wrapped up in the b******s of life that we that we forget that actually, we need to celebrate all of these moments because none of us know what’s around the corner.
‘But I think for Billy it’s utterly heart-breaking that he feels like he’s just got this guy back and they’ve got things on track, and he thought that everything was going well, and then all of a sudden, bang! This thing comes in and literally smashes everything out of the park completely dismantles the future that he bought that they were building on.
Teasing what’s ahead for Billy and Paul, Daniel revealed: ‘I think it’s going to be a really lovely blend. I think there’s going to be some really nice moments, you know, Billy and Paul really ticking things off bucket lists of adventures together and sort of trying to find that happiness in every moment that they can. There will be differences along the way. But I think there’s going to be some really fun moments, as well. So, it’s not all going to be, you know, doom and gloom and woe is us.’
‘Even in the bleakest of moments, there is a huge amount of humour to be had’, he added.
‘And I’m sure we’ll find it. I think we’ve tried to find it even when it’s not in there. To try to sort of stay positive as it’s bloody exhausting crying for 12 hours a day. It’s knackering. And then you’ve got to come home and look at your lines for next day, which is again, 12 hours of crying.
‘So, if you can find moments where you can find a little like emphasis within the dialogue, the scenes, the staging of it, whatever. We have such a giggle at work anyway, it’s a joyous place to work. I can’t believe I get paid for it!’.
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