Coronation Street star Jane Hazlegrove has spoken about her character Bernie Winter’s big decision in Paul Foreman’s death episode.
Bernie deceived her son-in-law Billy Mayhew this week by letting him believe that he’d said a final goodbye to Paul on the phone.
Monday’s episode (September 9) marked the end of Coronation Street‘s Motor Neurone Disease (MND) storyline, as Bernie’s beloved son Paul was rushed to hospital as he was struggling to breathe.
Doctors confirmed that there was nothing more they could do for Paul, but while he had most of his closest family around him, Billy didn’t make it on time to spend any last moments with his husband.
Wanting Billy to have closure, Bernie let him believe that Paul was still alive as he shared some final words on the phone instead.
Speaking about the storyline twist for the first time, Jane explained: “Bernie did do it for the right reasons. When I read it, I was a bit like: ‘What’s that about?’
“I was a bit concerned that we were going to go back to everyone saying: ‘What the hell is she playing at?’ But I think it was completely in the moment and it was about protecting Billy and Paul.
“Bernie is not going to be able to keep the secret and that becomes quite apparent. It’s that whole thing about grief – you just don’t know what’s going to happen.
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“She confides in Todd about it – she doesn’t really want to do that, but it just slips out. I think she probably would have taken that to the grave if she could have done. But the grief gets too much – and she gets a bit spiteful, actually.”
Upcoming episodes will see Bernie and Billy clash when they realise that they have very different ideas of what Paul’s funeral should be like.
Billy starts to plan a traditional send-off, while Bernie wants something that better reflects her son’s personality.
Jane continued: “As we all know, Billy is a man of God. Bernie isn’t a woman of anything, really – apart from spirituality and the essence of life, whatever that is.
“Bernie and Billy are really going to lock horns about how they’re going to celebrate and remember Paul. It’s going to be quite interesting, because Bernie’s got her own ideas.
“Bernie doesn’t really agree with the funeral ideas. She doesn’t really think Paul was a man of God – even though Billy baptised him and Paul got great solace through that.
“She basically throws a rave to remember him, so she gets everyone involved and there’s this massive rave that we shot over two nights, which was a really good release. We were all quite knackered!
“Bernie has an idea of what she wants to do with the ashes too. It’s not very conventional.”
