Please spend the entire day preparing yourselves because in tonight’s Coronation Street, Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) will sadly die. Last Friday, after much persuading, Billy ( Daniel Brocklebank ) decided to go out for a few drinks with David ( Jack P Shepherd ), Todd (Gareth Pierce) and Kit (Jacob Roberts). He returned home fairly tipsy, collapsed onto the sofa and drunkenly waffled on to Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove), who was looking after Paul.
In tonight’s episode, Billy spends the morning complaining of his hangover. He then realises he’s lost his phone and is thrown into a massive panic, given the device has so many photos and memories of him and Paul. As he sets off to retrace his steps, Summer (Harriet Bibby) and Bernie are horrified to discover Paul is unresponsive on the sofa, struggling to breathe.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video Summer calls an ambulance but at the same time, she realises they have no way of contacting Billy. ‘[Executive producer] Iain [MacLeod] said from the beginning there’s no time scale on this, we’re not going to rush it’ actor Peter Ash told us. ‘So they would tell me in advance, this is the story coming up, this is the next symptom, or thing Paul loses control of.
So there was time to tackle each progression of the illness.’ Whether Billy arrives in time to say his final goodbye to Paul remains to be seen. Later in the week though, he wakes up on the sof.