Coronation Street star Peter Ash reveals if Paul’s violent dad has really turned over a new leaf
Paul Foreman’s (Peter Ash) life is to be flipped upside down in Coronation Street next week as his estranged dad Denny (Danny Cunningham) heads to Weatherfield.
Paul, who has been part of the ITV soap since 2018, is currently dealing with a heartbreaking terminal motor neurone disease battle and in upcoming scenes we’ll see him talk candidly about his condition to Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney) on her new student radio show.
Later in the week, Paul, his boyfriend Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) and twin sister Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell) are overjoyed by the reaction to the interview and subsequent MND fundraiser.
However, his mum Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) is taken aback when a man approaches her outside of Roy’s Rolls and says he heard the radio broadcast and didn’t realise his son was dying.
He’s Paul’s dad!
Not wanting Denny to play a part in Paul’s life, she quickly covers saying that it was pre-recorded and implies that their son is already dead.
In disbelief, he follows her up to the florist flat and the twins are discovered to see their estranged dad after so many lost years.
Speaking of Paul’s reaction at the surprise arrival, actor Peter Ash said: ‘I think had it been a couple years ago, without the MND diagnosis, he probably would have told his dad to do one, basically.
‘Because he wasn’t a nice person at all. But I think Paul has a different outlook now because obviously he’s dying, and I think he’s just got a different way of looking at that.’
It has previously been established that Denny had been violent towards his children and to Bernie in the past.
Peter continued: ‘So he was definitely not a nice person at all. And in fact, I don’t think he’s changed that much! He leaves Paul alone for a bit, they’re gonna watch a film and just hang out together.
‘But then Denny goes out, and he shouldn’t really leave him alone, but he leaves him alone too long. Paul has a bit of a coughing fit, which really kind of shakes up Denny when he does eventually come back to the flat.’
Elsewhere on the street, Bernie and her boyfriend Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) have a heart to heart about Denny’s presence and he grows suspicious when she starts rifling through a shoebox full of old letters and photos.
What is she looking for, and what is she hiding?
