Coronation Street star Jane Hazlegrove confirms ‘peculiar’ twist ahead after Paul’s death
The death of Paul Foreman has crushed every Coronation Street fan, to the point that Peter Ash deservedly took home the best Serial Drama Performance from the National Television Awards for his devastating betrayal.
And for Paul’s loved ones left behind, things aren’t going to get much easier as they are consumed by grief.
And, for Bernie Winter and Summer Spellman, they are also dealing with the guilt that Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) didn’t actually speak to his late husband over the phone as they have claimed.
Popular stars Jane Hazlegrove and Harriet Bibby reflected on the tragedy with metro.co.uk, admitting that their alter-egos are in an impossible position.
‘It’s really tough and I think the guilt really eats away at everyone who was there,’ Harriet reflected. ‘Dealing with this loss, Billy wants them to tell him about Paul’s last moments and how his words affected Paul.
‘Summer and Bernie are dealing with their own grief at the time and then the added guilt of this lie that might’ve been for the best, but also not for the best.’
Jane continued: ‘Bernie tries, god knows she’s a trier, but she doesn’t always get it right. But that’s the fabulous character that they’ve created and I’m just very lucky to say these lines really.
‘It’s devastating but it’s what Corrie does. It highlights these things and makes us all go home and think about what the journey is really like.
‘We’re lucky that we get to go home and take the frocks and shoes off every night and go home to our lives. Who knows what’s around the corner for any of us. It’s been a real privilege to be part of this story.’
Of course, the story is far from over and there will be conflict over Paul’s funeral and beyond, with Bernie and Billy at odds over how best to mark his passing.
‘It’s all going to go a bit peculiar!’ she admitted. ‘That was inevitable really, wasn’t it? Billy’s a man of the cloth and she isn’t.
‘There’s quite a lot of tension between the fact that he thinks Paul should be having a Christian burial and she ain’t having none of that! She’d rather do something more Pagan perhaps. There will be a clash and a lock of horns.’
‘Summer’s a little bit “piggy in the middle”,’ Harriet added. ‘But I think being in the middle and seeing it from a separate point of view, she does see both sides and understands both people here who love Paul more than anything and wanting to celebrate his life in a way he would’ve enjoyed.
‘She does become a voice of reason between them both!’
As for whether she gets through to them, that’s another matter entirely!