Paul Foreman’s (Peter Ash) death continues to be a strong focus in Coronation Street next week as his family try and work together to organise his funeral.
But it’s not going to be easy.
At the start of this month, we saw Paul’s motor neurone disease journey come to a close after his initial 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.
Unfortunately for Billy, he’d spent their last night together out with the lads as the family rallied round to give him a break. Returning home drunk, he had one hell of a hangover the next morning and realised 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.
During their frantic search, back at home, Paul was quickly deteriorating and Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) couldn’t reach Billy to tell him.
After hearing the news, 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.
He realised that his only option would be to make his way there on foot, and as he raced through the streets, Paul passed away.
Coming up, with Bernie and Billy still clashing about the details of Paul’s funeral, Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell) suggests letting Bernie do it Billy’s way, and then says they could organise their own send-off for Paul afterwards.
With the planning underway for Paul’s memorial rave, Gemma points out that Kit (Jacob Roberts) has yet to confirm if they can close the street.
Will Kit be able to pull a few strings?
‘They are obviously quite different in their approach to life and subsequently therefore death as well,’ actor Daniel Brocklebank told Metro.co.uk, discussing why Billy and Bernie have not seen eye to eye over Paul’s funeral.
‘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.’
