Coronation Street shares details of Paul's tragic Christmas storyline
Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street has shared more details of Paul Foreman's emotional Christmas storyline.
Paul will fear that his mum Bernie Winter could miss his final Christmas Day after she lands herself in trouble for her recent criminal activity.
Peter Ash, who plays Paul, recently confirmed that his character will soon receive an upsetting prognosis. In a candid conversation about the progression of Paul's motor neurone disease (MND), doctors tell him that he has only six to 12 months left to live.
Paul wants to make the most of the festive season in the difficult circumstances, but his family are left in turmoil when Bernie's bad behaviour comes back to haunt her.
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Speaking to Digital Spy and other media in a recent press call, Coronation Street's producer Iain MacLeod explained: "The challenge with a story like the one we're doing with Paul is there's this inevitable medical progression.
"We're taking great care to show that in as much detail as we can, because as a soap we're in a position to do that. We're not a drama where you have 90 minutes to tell a two-year decline – you can show the day-to-day progression of illnesses like Paul's.
"You always need a story to have on top of that, so we're always very keen to keep that family busy. The medical story is always going on, but like we all have to do when we're ill, they're contending with catastrophes that are nothing to do with the illness at all.
"This Christmas, the catastrophe arises from Bernie and her historical involvement with Shelly's slightly dubious online scamming.
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"It puts her in a massive amount of legal hot water, to the extent that there's every likelihood that she's not going to be present for what will be Paul's last Christmas – and the family might not get to be together for one last festive moment."
He continued: "There's also a really fascinating exploration of their history. That family was scattered for a lot of the twins' childhood. It wasn't an easy time – they didn't have much money, and there was Paul's historically abusive stepfather.
"There's lot of really poignant stuff as well, so what we've tried to do is make it bittersweet but as realistic as far as we could. It's a fitting, funny but poignant last Christmas, with that fantastic family at the centre of it all."
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
Coronation Street has been working on Paul's storyline with support from the MND Association, which focuses on improving access to care, research and campaigning for people affected by motor neurone disease.
The charity's helpline MND Connect (0808 802 6262) is available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, and 7pm to 10.30pm. Calls are free.
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