Coronation Street have aired one of their saddest deaths ever, as Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) passed away surrounded by his family – with one notable absence – his beloved husband Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank).
The truly tragic scenes bring an end to this chapter of Paul’s motor neurone disease journey, after his diagnosis almost 18 months ago.
We’ve seen his condition steadily grow worse during that time, first losing his mobility, and later struggling to speak.
In recent weeks, he’s had to rely on a ventilator when struggling to breathe. During Friday’s episode, he made brother Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) promise not to tell their mum Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove) about a particular health episode, for fears she would stop Billy from enjoying a much-needed night out with the lads.
In tonight’s episode, Billy woke up hungover on the sofa and panic soon set in when he realised that he’d lost his phone.
Fearful that the pictures, videos and memories of Paul would be lost forever after not backing them up into cloud storage, he and David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd) set out to find it.
Luckily, at the Chariot Square Hotel, they located the device – but someone had ran over it in the carpark and it needed replacing.
This meant that he had somewhat of a predicament, as back at home, Paul was quickly deteriorating and Bernie couldn’t reach Billy to tell him.
David suggested shopping for a new phone at Freshco, and transferring the data over. As the two chatted in the carpark, a number of missed phone calls and text messages began to flood through.
Terrified by the prospect that of not being with his husband as he took a turn for the worse, Billy wondered how he would make it to the hospital in time – especially when the carpark became congested due to a broken down van at the exit.
In the worst possible situation, he realised that his only option would be to make his way there on foot, and as he raced through the streets he had no idea that Paul had slipped away surrounded by Bernie, Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell) and Summer (Harriet Bibby).
As Billy stopped for breath, he picked up the phone again and asked to speak with his husband. Bernie, thinking she was doing the right thing, told him that Paul was still alive and listening.
By the time he arrived at the hospital, it became apparent that it was ‘too late’, with only the three women knowing the truth.
‘We’d been building up to this moment for 18 months, as actors, so to put that final block in was like, “We’re here.” It felt so far ahead in the future when we were first initially pitched the storyline’ Daniel told us.
‘So for us as characters it was harrowing, but for us as actors, we shot everything pretty much chronologically. So the scene where Billy arrives and holds on to Paul, who’s obviously already passed, was Pete’s last scene.
‘We knew that when that moment happened, Pete was going to be leaving.’
On what the next few weeks hold for the family post-death, he continued: ‘Billy and Bernie are obviously quite different in their approach to life and subsequently therefore death as well.’
‘They’re both grieving for somebody that they love, but both of them think they’ve got dibs on grief stakes, one as a mum and one as a husband.
‘Billy’s very traditional. The funeral’s coming up – Billy wants hymns, Bernie wants pop songs, Billy wants a hearse, Bernie wants something else. There is conflict over the next few weeks.’
