Coronation Street to air Paul Foreman’s final episode next week

Next week on Coronation Street, the moment that Paul Foreman’s loved ones have been dreading finally comes around, as he passes away 18 months after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

But in what could be a devastating twist, husband Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) finds himself stuck on the other side of town as Paul (Peter Ash) quickly deteriorates—will he get back to Weatherfield General in time to say goodbye?

On Monday, Billy is feeling a little delicate after a particularly heavy night on the town with David (Jack P Shepherd) and others, a rare night out which Paul had persuaded him to attend.

“He didn’t want to go at all,” Daniel Brocklebank told EverySoap and other media during a special press screening of the episode. “He’s been at home with Paul now for months. Billy’s a complete control freak, so if he can’t see what’s happening, he’s constantly worrying about what could be happening.

“So I think that it would have been quite an arm twist to get him to go out for a drink. And he’s not much of a drinker, so he can’t really hold his booze that well.”

If the stinking hangover wasn’t enough to contend with Billy is concerned when he cannot find his phone, not so much for the inconvenience factor, but more that it has all his photos and memories of Paul over the past months.

“I think we all know what it’s like to lose your phone,” Daniel continues. “Especially now that everything’s on the bloody things. It wasn’t so bad in the days of Nokia 3310 when all you lost was some texts. But now, of course, your cards are on them and it’s bad enough then. But if your husband’s dying and you’ve not paid for backup…”

Thrown into a panic, Billy rushes off to retrace his steps, but little does he know how monumental this moment could be.

“Of course, he doesn’t realise that when he rushes in, kisses Paul nonchalantly on the forehead and says, ‘I’ll see you in a bit,’ that it could be the last time that he’s going to see him,” Daniel sighs.

It’s not long after Billy leaves that Summer (Harriet Bibby) and Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) realise that Paul is struggling to breathe. Whilst Paul has had a couple of moments over the past few weeks where he’s needed his nebuliser to ease his breathing, this time is clearly different.

Summer calls an ambulance, as she Bernie and Kit (Jacob Roberts) come to the horrifying realisation that Paul is beginning to slip away, and that Billy couldn’t have left at a worse time.

Meanwhile, after Billy teams up with David (whose memories of the previous night are also somewhat hazy), the pair manage to find his phone, albeit crushed after being run over in the car park. Heading to Freshco to buy a new one, the pair share some light-hearted scenes as they set the phone up, blissfully unaware of the drama unfolding.

“I didn’t quite realise when Jack and I were filming the scenes where we’re sat outside Freshco how funny they were going to be in contrast to then cutting back to what was happening to Paul at the time,” Daniel explains, with the scene seeing the pair begin to remember their antics the night before. “It’s a really nice contrast.”

After David sorts the phone for Billy and transfers the SIM over, he suddenly finds himself inundated with messages. And as fate conspires against him traffic-wise, Billy finds himself forced to run to the hospital.

“He doesn’t really know the seriousness of it because he’s not been involved in any of that,” Daniel adds. “Something’s happened, but he doesn’t know that Paul’s literally in his final moments.”

An exhausted Billy runs across town as the rest of Paul’s loved ones will him to hold on, but will Billy make it to the hospital in time to say goodbye?

Daniel agrees that it would be Billy’s worst nightmare if he didn’t.

“Of course, he’s promised Paul that he will be there in his last moment. It wouldn’t just be that he wasn’t there at the end either. It would be the fact that he’d spent Paul’s last night on earth, pissed up in a bar somewhere, whereas he could have been at home, snuggled up with him, falling asleep next to him and waking up next to him. There’s all of those other bits in between.”

Although we must remain tight-lipped on the exact circumstances of Paul’s death scene, Peter Ash admitted to us that he found it quite difficult for what should have been a relatively easy shoot with no lines to learn.

“It was a beautiful scene,” he explains. “To be fair, it was quite hard to not get emotional during the scene where they’re all giving those beautiful goodbyes. I’ve got to pretend to not hear it.

“When he does pass, it’s that thing of trying not to breathe at all, which gets a bit tricky after a while. But, yeah, the scene in general was just beautiful. It was a really nice way to end it, and to have all my favourites there.”

In Friday’s episode (there will be no episode airing on Wednesday), Billy is faced with the harsh reality of life without Paul as he stares at his empty wheelchair in the living room.

Tensions within the family are high as they all try to deal with their grief, but will they be able to pull together to give Paul the send-off he deserves?

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It was back in April 2023 that Paul’s diagnosis was confirmed following a neurological assessment, after he had been forced to give up work when he started to lose the grip in his hands.

With only close friend Dee-Dee (Channique Sterling-Brown) aware of Paul’s diagnosis at first, it would be another month before Billy found out, after he unexpectedly turned up in court as Paul faced charges of stealing a car—desperately trying to earn cash from dodgy jobs.

Paul was finally forced to tell his twin sister Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell) and mum Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) after he broke down whilst giving a speech at Gemma and Chesney’s (Sam Aston) wedding, revealing that he’d only got three years to live at the most.

The show has collaborated closely with the MND Association throughout the storyline, as Paul’s symptoms grew progressively worse and we saw the numerous physical and logistical challenges faced by both him and his loved ones.

The storyline has been an important one for Daniel Brocklebank in particular, who has been a long-standing ambassador for the MND Association since his grandfather died of the disease over 20 years ago.

“When Iain [MacLeod, Corrie’s Executive Producer] first told me we’d be doing this, we had no idea really of the timescale and also of to what point we would take the deterioration of Paul,” Peter told us. “Iain said from the beginning that we weren’t going to rush it and that’s been amazing.”

“Every aspect of the storyline is something we had to get right because so many people are, unfortunately, living with it,” Peter continues. “We didn’t want to misrepresent it at all in honour of the people we’ve have lost and those who are still living with it.”

“It was the easiest when it first started because it was just the hand. I guess the most physically tricky bit was when he was still on his feet but walking with the cane and his foot drop. But then towards the end, again, it got a bit easier because then it was all about only being able to move his face, a bit, and eyes.”

Through the help provided by the MND Association, and Daniel’s own experiences, Peter admits he felt a comfort in knowing that they were getting the storyline right.

“Personally, I knew next to nothing about MND, so it was a big kind of research session for me. Obviously, Dan was a massive help and knows loads about it.

“The fact that he did have that personal connection to it, which wasn’t known by Iain or [show producer] Verity before, was a bit of a strange coincidence.”

“I massively thank Ian and Verity for trusting me with this storyline,” Peter adds. “Obviously, I always knew it would be an eventual exit, unless we were very lucky enough to find a cure in that time, so it was a double-edged sword.

“But again just really grateful that they trusted me with the storyline and that they allowed it to play out in its own time.”

Although his time on the show is now over, and he is looking forward to some time off before starring in panto in Oldham later this year, Peter will continue to play a part in bringing awareness to the disease, which affects up to 5000 people in the UK at any given time.

“Again, big thanks to Dan, as it was him who invited me on to the first MND fundraiser. Once you get to know that MND community, you just want to get involved and help out because they are amazing. The outlook that they have, despite what they’re going through, is just so inspiring.”

“I’m now happily a patron of the Mel Evans MBE Foundation, named after Mel Evans, who we lost to MND. His partner, Lynn, very kindly asked if I’d be a patron, and I bit her hand off and said absolutely.

“So me and Dan are at many a MND fundraiser throughout the year now.”

“It makes it special that you know that you’re raising awareness for an amazing cause and doing a bit of good, even just raising awareness and a bit of money. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a job well done.”

Paul’s final episode airs at 8pm on Monday 9th September on ITV1.

Please note that there are only two episodes next week, with the second airing on Friday 13th September.

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