Interview: Dan Brocklebank discusses Paul's MND diagnosis

Recently, viewers have seen Paul struggle to come to terms with a possible motor neurone disease diagnosis, which will be confirmed later this month. A short while ago, we chatted with Peter Ash (whose interview you can read here) and Dan Brocklebank about this storyline.

As well as discussing how he thinks Billy will react to Paul's devastating diagnosis, Dan shared with us his personal experience with MND.

You've worked with the MND Association for 20 years - can you tell us your story?

20 years ago, my grandfather was diagnosed with MND and subsequently died from it. So this is a subject that I have lived through in my own life as have the rest of my family. Because I’ve been working with the MND Association for so long, I’ve then met a lot of other people who have been living with MND. So it’s a subject that’s really close to my heart. I’ve been helping to fundraise for them for many years. 

When I first got the phone call, I was out walking my dogs, and like Peter said, it is always a heart-in-throat moment when the producers phone you, and you think “What on earth is this about?” Verity told me what the storyline was going to be, but they had no idea of my history with MND or with the Association, so it was a bit of a shock.

How did you feel when you were told about the storyline?

I’m not going to lie, my legs went a little bit weak because I suppose it just brings back memories of that time, and I thought this could potentially be quite triggering in a lot of ways. I mean, obviously, Billy’s knowledge of MND is very different to my knowledge of MND, but I’m hoping I might be able to bring some of my personal experience into the playing of this storyline, having been somebody who did, in real life, help to care for somebody with MND. 

You been raising awareness for MND for so long - were you pleased that those two worlds were colliding to bring the awareness on screen as Billy?

Yes, absolutely. I was well aware of how much publicity this will give MND and the MND Association. Obviously, extremely sad to know that eventually we’ll have to lose Peter because I love working with him. But for the illness and the MND Association and for my grandfather and for all the people I’ve met and known over the last 20 years who have suffered with the illness, in a strange way, it’s a really lovely way to be able to commemorate them and their stories and hopefully raise awareness and get us to a point where we can fund enough research that we find at least something to slow it down or, and hopefully, cure it. 

Is there added pressure to be involved in a storyline that is very personal to you, and how do your family feel about it?

It’s only been very recently that I spoke with them because we have to keep our mouths shut about what’s coming up. But I did speak with my mum, it was my mum’s dad that had MND, and my mum has a brother and sister, so I spoke to all three of them and asked how much about our family’s journey through living with somebody with MND that I disclose, and all three of them were very happy for me to talk about everything, really, because in the larger scheme of things, it will hopefully raise awareness, raise money, which will hopefully generate research that will mean people won’t have to go through what we went through.

Does it give you added pressure as an actor to play something that is personal to you?

Again, this is Billy’s journey and not mine, so I think the only pressure for me, really, is to see how triggering I think it’s going to be. I won’t have any trouble accessing emotion to play it. Billy’s quite an emotional character anyway. I mean, obviously, as Peter said, we want to portray it with as much sensitivity and realism as we can, and I don’t think that’s going to be any problem all because I’m stepping into something I don’t need to do research on. In some ways, it actually takes the pressure off because I know I’m portraying something that I have lived through and have experience in real life.

Do you feel that soaps are a good platform for this sort of thing to get a message to a wider audience?

Yes. I think, obviously, the point of our show is entertainment, but we have a huge opportunity, an ability to educate as well, and I think a show like ours, because we’re in people’s living rooms for three hours a week, whatever the subject matter is, I think it will invoke questions, conversations, within family members and family groups. When my grandfather was first diagnosed, we’d never heard of it, we didn’t know what it was. As Peter said, with things like the ice bucket challenge, awareness has become more over, certainly in the 20 years since my grandfather died. But again, this is going to reach a new audience. So, yes, hopefully it will increase awareness and discussion.

Paul keeps the diagnosis from Billy for some time. How do you think Billy is going to cope with that news?

Obviously, with him being an archdeacon, his job is very much about pastoral care, so I think on a personal level, he’s obviously going to be absolutely devastated that his partner has been given this diagnosis, but I think his job skills will also help him to be able to be a support for Paul. I did film a scene recently where Billy talks about having a parishioner in his community who is also suffering with MND, so this isn’t the first time that Billy will have come into contact with somebody with the illness. I think in the scene, he says he’s trying to find a support group for him. I think he will want to show a strength for Paul. I don’t know, I haven’t read any of this, but I think he will leave his own personal emotional bits on the quieter side because he won’t want to make it about him because, of course, it is all about Paul.

This story is as much about showing the emotional effects for Billy and Paul as well as the physical side of what Paul is going through. It is a love story as well, isn’t it, that has suddenly taken a path neither of them expected?

And I think grief, you know, it affects people in different ways. And I think if someone is given a terminal diagnosis, people often start to grieve before they lose someone, and people deal with that in different ways. But Billy being a vicar, we’ve seen him deal with death many times during my years playing him - Sinead, Kylie, all these characters he’s either buried or given some kind of support to, so he will be able to offer that to Paul. But obviously, he is also dealing with his own grief as well. It is a love story but told from a very different perspective. 

Was it important to you to be able to offer advice to Peter during this storyline?

Just shed some light on my personal experience of MND. It not only affects people physically, but emotionally. And not just from the shock of having MND, but it can affect people’s emotions. People can become giggly in inappropriate moments or become very emotional or angry. We had a scene last week, obviously Billy still doesn’t know at this point, and we were discussing why Paul gets so emotional at this point, and I said to Peter, well, it might not be from the fact he’s still reeling from his diagnosis, it could be from the fact the MND is actually affecting his emotions.

 That was something I noticed with my grandfather. I had never seen him cry, I was very, very close to him, and even before he was diagnosed, he became much more emotional. He was only diagnosed a week before he died, so we’d had pretty much almost just under two years of his symptoms progressing and us being told it was asthma or this or that. But one thing we did notice was that he became a much more emotional person, would cry at things. Now, in retrospect, that was because of the MND. But as I said, we didn’t know it was MND at the time. So there were those little insights that we’ve been able to discuss on set where I’ve been able to throw little things in.

Sophie Williams

Find me on Twitter @sophie_writer1

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