A One-Take Farewell: Interview With Jack P. Shepherd

It seems unlikely that David Platt's Christmas this year is going to involve highlighting the Radio Times, and forgetting what day it is while messing about with toys and vegging out on selection boxes and mince pies.

With the departure of his Mam Gail looming, as actress Helen Worth says farewell to the show; his wife Shona's secret infidelity arousing his suspicions; the presence of her son Clayton in their lives; and Max's involvement with Lauren and Frankie – not to mention the big bag of stolen cash David has hidden – he's got far too much going on for any of that.

I travelled to Coronation Street Studios in Manchester for an interview with Jack P. Shepherd, who plays David, to get his take on all the happenings. Those not wishing to read any spoilers, or encounter some moderate effing and mild jeffing, should look away now.

For starters, we hear that David is "a bit apprehensive about (Gail's fiancé) Jesse, but he's kind of glad in a way that he's going to launder the money, because he thinks, right, okay, fine, that's going to be okay." 

But this isn't the only thing distressing him, as his family continue to be a source of concern.

"He's worried about his Gran," Jack tells us, "because she's dropping loads of questions, she's upset, she's making up stories that she's ill so that Gail doesn't leave, and he's trying to comfort her basically, and say, look it's gonna be alright."

But, given everything we're seeing and hearing, what are the chances of that given his life is essentially in chaos?

"He always sort of cracks under pressure, doesn't he." Jack notes. "It looks like he's got it all togther and then he kind of does summat extreme, like he'll run someone over, or try and poision someone or something."

Asked if he likes playing such a character, and the fact that David is still unhinged given all that's happened to him, Jack says, "Yeah, it always seems as though he's completely normal and he's just having a laugh. And then as soon as something sort of threatens his family, he goes hell-bent, sort of psycho. I don't mind doing that, because it means you can obviously dip in and out of the two, and neither two are out of character."

Asked how he thinks David will react to Shona's recent infidelity with Detective Kit Green, Jack says, "I think he'll react in a way where he'll have to try and get his own back somehow, and he'll have to try and do it in a clever way. Barring the obvious, with him being six foot taller than David, he won't be able to take him on physically. It'll have to be something sort of mentally, I'd have thought. He'll do something to f**k his life up somehow. That's what he'll do."

So, does David really love Shona?

"I think he does, and I think that's what makes it so painful for him when he does find out," Jack observes. "And it also makes it so hard for him to break the marriage up, because he does still love her. I think he's kind of p***ed off with himself that he does; that he fell in love with her in the first place, 'cos he shouldn't have done, 'cos she's the mother of the lad who killed his wife, so it should never have happened. But, he fell in love with her before he knew that. And then he knew that, and he went, aww s**t! I think that's still a sleeping giant that just will not go away."

Jack absolutely thinks David has the right to prevent Shona seeing her imprisoned son Clayton, and he and Julia Goulding, who plays his onscreen wife, even argue in the green room about each of their characters being in the right.

"You're not seeing him!" asserts Jack, who plays this out to great amusement. "I don't get it. He held a knife to your throat, and he was gonna kill you, and I had to get the SWAT team of Weatherfield, who were there. We all saw it. It was snowing, he were in a warehouse in Rusholme, and he had her at knife point, and they were going 'Get on the f***ing floor!' They were doing all this, and now she wants to go (see him)? No."

"He murdered my wife, Saint Kylie, and he tried to kill you so, no. We're not having him, and we're not speaking about him. We're never mentioning his name, and we're pretending he doesn't exist. That's the kind of avenue I wanna go down. And as soon as he's sending these little friend requests, we're not off to go see him, we're not doing that. And I don't even wanna bring it up with Shona for the chance she might say 'I wanna.' We're not having that. So, no. They're off in the bin. And then she bloody finds out!"

Asked what it's like to be a Platt and work with his fellow Platt family cast members, Jack says, "There's a lot of us. And you can look at the kids now, and there's three, so, there's mine, Nick's and Sarah's replacements. I've got Lily – so, Sarah. Nick's got himself, weirdly, in Sam, and Sarah's got me – Harry."

"We all get on, we all have a laugh, we do a little bit of work – just a tiny bit," he jokes, "and then we go home." In terms of other cast members joining them for scenes, he says, "I think anybody who comes into that, they're doing it as well as us. It's not as though it's 'Oh this is our couch, this is our kitchen and our living room.'"

"It is funny; it is good. I think we all kind of get it when, if someone's got something big to do in a scene, we'll just let that person do the scene, and we're fine filling in around their backs or whatever. We're not too precious."

Asked about David's upset at Gail planning her wedding and departure, Jack says, "I think he would've been more bothered about it, and you'd have seen probably more of a breakdown with him with her going if he wasn't completely preoccupied with the whole Shona thing as well, because that does take the weight. Nick's running off with the whole Toyah / Leanne debacle, Sarah is running after Bethany and all that, and the Daniel thing, so I think there's a lot going on, and it all seems to be falling apart." He adds, "Luckily, Gail seems to be oblivious to it all."

Jack then spoke about what it was like filming their final scenes in the knowledge that Helen Worth was going.

"Me, Tina and Ben (who play Gail's daughter and son, Sarah and Nick) we all had us own emotional scenes with her separately. I think there's this thing where she comes to each of us separately in separate scenes and gives us basically a farewell, goodbye. Even in rehearsals, I couldn't really run it, I couldn't really do it, because I know I've only got one go at it, I've only got one take and then there'll be tears and then there won't be anything else left." 

"So, I can't really run the lines, which is a f***er for Helen. I said, I'll kind of mark it through. I just said to the director John Anderson, 'John, I can't do it.' I went, 'Are you doing the close first?' And he said, 'Yeah, I'll do the close.' And I said, 'Well get Helen and me, and then we can do wides and everything.' But I said, 'If we're going to do it, because it's me saying goodbye to Helen and it's Helen saying good bye to me after 25 years, I'm only probably gonna have one in me.'" 

"And she was just worried about getting the lines right, and I was like, it doesn't matter, does it. Just say whatever you want. You're saying goodbye, you know? So, yeah, we did it, and it's really good. There were people on other units and other blocks and everything who were watching all the monitors." 

"Her last scene filming was a scene with me and Julia in the Platts, and I went, 'No, no, no, her last scene has to be just all of us Platts.' And they were like, 'There isn't one where you're all together.' I went, 'Well f****ng write one! Just write one! You can!' So they went, 'Yeah, we can!' So they did, they wrote one and I went, 'We don't have to be doing anything, we can be all NS, not speaking. Just make sure we're all together in the Platts, for Gods' sakes, please, for when she finally goes. Don't just have someone random with her or whatever.' So they did. Luckily, they were able to do it and schedule it so that we were all together."

Describing how every unit broke and came down to the studio, which was full, Jack says, "I've never seen that before. There was about 400 or 500 people all in the studio."

"Lee, the first AD, came up to me and he went, 'What do you want to do, because I have every unit saying that they want to break and they all wanna come in and say goodbye.' And he went, 'If I ask her?' I said, 'She'll say no.' And he went, 'So what shall we do?' And I said, 'We'll just do it. She'll cry, she'll be emotional, but you're meant to be, that's the thing. It's 50 years!'" 

"She wanted to do the back door, didn't want a fuss or anything, and I said, it's not so much for you; it's not you doing the fanfare, the big farewell it's for the building, it's for everyone, and it was really nice. And then we had a thing in Nick's Bistro, we had a little champagne, few drinks on the night, which was really lovely. They did a really nice montage, and it was great. Everybody was very happy. Me, Ben and Tina, we gave a little speech..." which, we were told by Corrie staff, made them all cry.

It was wonderful to hear these insights about Helen's departure from someone who is clearly immensely fond of her, and has worked with her so closely for half of her remarkable 50-year career on the Street. All that remains now is for us to watch the build up to her farewell, which happens on Christmas Day via an hour-long episode at 7pm. 

I'm sure you can get the sense from this that there is never a dull moment at a Jack P. Shepherd interview, and by the sounds of it, the same goes for his character as David Platt will have more than enough to contend with this festive season.

By Emma Hynes

Read all about my recent trip to Coronation Street in A Rover Returns.

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Martin’s Platter of cheese

Tonight’s Corrie will see the return of Martin Platt, a character that I have fond memories of from childhood. There weren’t many Martins that I could look up to in public life, so my namesake in Coronation Street had to do. 

I always liked Martin. He was a good dad to David and to his adoptive children Nicky and Sarah Louise. It’s been interesting to see what he was like as a young man in the Classic Coronation Street episodes on ITV3. He had a hoop earring and a mullet, like most lads about town in the mid-to-late 80s.

Unfortunately, Martin is not returning under happy circumstances. It is, of course, part of the story arc that began last week with the terrible assault on his son, David.

I always imagined that if Martin Platt did come back to Coronation Street, it would be following a career change from nursing to cheesemaking, given Sean Wilson’s own professional development since leaving Corrie in 2005.

I pictured Martin setting up a stall at an artisan food market on the cobbles, selling a variety of produce from the Saddleworth Cheese Company. A storyline of this sort would reflect modern trends in food and drink consumption and provide a fantastic marketing opportunity for Sean Wilson. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

Nevertheless, I thought I’d mark Sean Wilson’s return to Corrie and escape the doom and gloom of current happenings on screen by sampling some of the actor’s award-winning cheeses. Plus, it gave me an excuse to use the pun in the title of this blog. Apologies if it’s a bit cheesy.

I’ve been wanting to try Sean Wilson’s cheeses ever since I found out they existed. However, they have only recently hit the south of England. Sean now has a nationwide contract with Asda and his cheeses are available in stores with a deli, badged under the name ‘Artisan Farm’.

That said, it took me a while to track them down. I walked two miles to the Asda in Wallington one Sunday afternoon but left empty-handed. I continued my pilgrimage to the Waterlooville Superstore when visiting the in-laws, having persuaded them to drive me there. This was also to no avail. 

Eventually, my parents found two of the sacred cheeses in the Asda in Burgh Heath and bought them for me. Thanks mum, thanks dad.

‘Muldoons Picnic’ is a Lancashire crumbly cheese. The tasting notes tell of "a fresh acidity and broad curdy creaminess to the palate, giving a pleasing aftertaste and character that you just don't find with the factory equivalent".

This cheese is named after the Lancashire term for a room full of screaming kids. For example: "What do you think this is, Muldoon’s Picnic?!" It sounds like the Platt household in the early 90s!

‘How’s ya father’ is a creamy Lancashire with a “velvety character” and “a pleasing appearance and aroma”.

I tried both of these on some crackers with a nice drop of port and they really are very good.

I also had them both melted on toast with a bit of tomato. How’s ya father was my favourite and is particularly good on toast.

There are two other cheeses made by Sean’s Saddleworth Cheese Company. ‘Mouth Almighty’ is a stronger cheese which is said to have an initial tang that “opens up into a full flavour and unfolds into the mouth with a creaminess not too dissimilar to the How’s ya father”.

‘Smelly Ha'peth’ is a medium soft blue cheese with "a mild, sweet, nuttiness of a more continental theme". ‘Smelly Ha'peth’ is a Lancashire term for a child covered in muck after a full day’s play.

I’ve not tried these other two but if anyone knows where to find them in London or the South East, please let me know! 

It’s good to see Sean Wilson find success in the world of cheese after Coronation Street and long may it continue. However, I was also pleased to hear that he was coming back to Corrie, albeit only for a short time. 

With what has happened to David, the reunion between father and son may not make for easy viewing, but it is entirely right that Martin Platt should be back on screen within a storyline of this magnitude. Perhaps the character will cancel his move to New Zealand and stick around for a bit longer. David’s going to need his dad around.

By Martin Leay, on Twitter @mpleay

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Dark days ahead for David Platt this summer

There's a good, long interview with Jack P Shepherd, who plays David Platt, in this week's TV Times magazine.  He says that there's going to be trouble ahead for the Platts this summer - and here's why...

It's been a year since Kylie died and next week we'll see the Platts have a picnic in their back garden at which David loses his temper when he sees Shona has turned up.  Jack says that Shona coming back is "like the straw that breaks the camel's back. "In terms of grief he's stillv ery much in the middle of that. Or rather, he hasn't grieved - that's the thing. He has the kids and he's had to be there for them, so I don't think he's ever been in a position to grieve."

Asked about what's on the horizon for David he says: "He deserves some happiness but whether he gets it or not is a different matter. Obviously there's a lot going on at the Platts' at the moment, with Shona knocking about and everything that has happened with Bethany and Nathan. And Nick has left, so there isn't that same person to bring the family together. It doesn't look good for the next few weeks."

Jack also said that he'd like David and Maria to get together. "They're quite similar in that they've both had their husband/wife murdered, they've both got kids and they've both worked in the salon all these years. They've grown up together and know one another inside out.  I think they could have fun together as well.

Read more Corrie news, interviews and spoilers 

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A shared love of Patricia Routledge

David Platt was the beneficiary of an Easter miracle this week when he learned he had been left a windfall in the will of former client, Mrs Moss. It turns out they had a shared love of Patricia Routledge.

As a result of his ability to converse with pensioners about old episodes of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ and ‘Hetty Wainthropp Investigates’, David now finds himself 20 grand better off and the proud owner of David the dog.

It looks like David (Platt, not the dog) will soon be making a decision about what he does with the money. I imagine he will also have to change the dog’s name or else things will get very confusing at number 8.

I wonder if any of Weatherfield’s older residents will tell David that in her younger days Patricia Routledge was the spitting image of Sylvia Snape, who owned Snape's Cafe on Rosamund Street in 1961.

You can read more about Patricia Routledge’s brief stint in Coronation Street over at Corriepedia. How very meta! 

Happy Easter everyone.

By Martin Leay

You can follow Martin on Twitter @mpleay

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Coronation Street Blog Interviews: Ben Price, Jack P Shepherd, Helen Worth

One of the most interesting things about interviewing groups of Corrie cast members for the Coronation Street Blog is observing the relationships between them as actors. This week I was lucky enough to travel to Manchester for a chat with Ben Price, Jack P. Shepherd and Helen Worth about what lies ahead for the Platts.

It was the most natural thing to see Helen seated in the centre with on-screen sons Ben and Jack on either side as she declared “Well, may I say that my boys are brilliant” with a lovely broad smile and a twinkle in her eye. You can feel that there is a strong bond between them, and Helen is very definite when asked if she feels maternal towards them. “Yes of course I do, these are my boys” she smiles, “it’s family, it’s a unit, nothing and no one can come between the Platts.”

With David set to be locked in the Bistro cellar by his family in attempt to foil his suicidal revenge mission, Helen gives an insight into what the experience of filming on either side of a door in this purpose built set was like. “It did actually feel very special and we all remarked on the fact that we were talking through walls and yet focussing on each other. I knew where Jack was in the room, I knew where his eyes were, I could actually talk to him although it was through a wall.” Ben agreed, adding “it becomes a bit like radio, all you can do is listen to what that character is saying. You have to listen and you have to create something just from that, you’ve got nothing else visually to help the audience and that actually is really lovely.” Helen continues, “All the years that we’ve worked together hopefully come to fruition on scenes like that. There’s a kind of code, we know what we’re doing, we know what we’re thinking, and hopefully it works.”

With regard to Nick and David’s relationship, Ben notes “it’s not older brother and younger brother talking anymore. It is one man saying to another man, ‘you have children now, and that is where we are. And I love you, but you have children, so you can’t do this’.”

Helen is amused at having been the one to mastermind the scheme. “The brains of the family” she laughs, “As I’ve said, I can’t quite believe how I managed to persuade [Nick] and Sarah to actually do it with me. I mean, nobody said, ‘no Gail we can’t do this. No Mam, this is a really bad idea, let’s think of something else’.”

Jack has had a consistent run of emotionally charged scenes, and we’re told the ones to come will be similarly fraught. “Yeah, they were very emotional” he reveals. “The scenes in the cellar with me, Helen and Ben, they didn’t read that emotional when I first read them, but then, as Ben says, when you get in that environment, and you can’t see someone, then you do just have to listen to them. Yeah, they were nice.” With the direction and the script receiving high praise, Jack adds, “I think that’s the stuff that I really look for in episodes, just the dialogue between two actors really rather than, you know, stunts and things like that.”

Such was the intensity of his scenes in the build up to Kylie’s death that Jack found it hard to sleep or eat. He explains, “I’ve never taken it home before, I’ve always done the scenes then walked out of the building, and I’m fine. But with them scenes, it did affect me for about a week, which is a very very long time, for me anyway.” Explaining why, he continues, “Just because they were so harrowing and because, was it about two weeks we were filming them scenes? About a week?” Helen answers, “Yeah, and the particular scene on the street, the last one that you did, was for me one of the most amazing scenes I’d ever seen and I’ve been here a long time. Sometimes you can’t walk away from it, I mean, we do walk away from it all the time, but I think there occasionally are times when you can’t.”

Ben adds, “Jack has got to put himself in the place as an actor saying goodbye to a character, and saying goodbye to a friend. She leaves as a friend, she leaves him as a character, she dies. That’s a painful place to put yourself. You’re seeing a character emerge from a childhood where he had a wayward father, and didn’t get on with his mother and could kick back, but then things start to get a bit more harrowing, don’t they, you’ve got a wife, she’s stabbed, you’ve got kids - big stuff.”

We’re used to high drama, but we also have normality running alongside it and for Ben, this is the point of soap. “The family can go from extraordinary drama, extraordinary places, to coffee and some toast in the morning, and Audrey talking about the Renshaw twins” he explains. “That’s what people jump into, that’s what they love to see. And that’s the skill, that’s what you have to bridge.” This prompts Jack to burst out laughing at the mention of the Renshaw twins, followed by everyone else.

With Les Dennis due to depart the show, Gail is set to be alone once more. “I’m not sure they’re going to be able to cast anybody else because I don’t think anybody will do the job" she laughs, "I think I’ll just look after my boys, I think I’ll just live through them and stay in my annex.”

The possibility of David falling in love again is a source of one of the biggest laughs of the day when Jack declares “He should explore the street, I think”, and this proves very amusing to Ben Price. When we’ve all collected ourselves, we’re on to the subject of Peter versus Nick. Ben is looking forward to coming to inevitable blows with his arch-nemesis. “Yeah, can’t wait. I mean, it’s brilliant” he enthuses, “Chris comes back; obviously, I like Chris in real life, I hate Peter Barlow. And I don’t need to say anything. I just look at him, physically, and it’s like ‘argh’. That’s why the show works. The drama is set up. So, yeah it’s great, it’s fantastic, we’re so lucky to have Chris back.”

This was a very enjoyable interview, rife with laughter and insight, and all that remains now is for us to sit back and enjoy watching their performances in what promises to be another gripping week on Coronation Street.

By Emma Hynes
www.emmahynes.net
Twitter: @ELHynes
Facebook: @EmmaHynesWrites
Instagram: emmalouhynes

Read more about David Platt's revenge.

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Coronation Street double episode review, Friday 15 July 2016

A review like this is not easy to write. Why? Because it attempts to capture the essence of something that has cut to our very core, that for which raw emotion is the only viable substitute for words. It’s hard to think of last night’s Coronation Street as a construct, so competently did its parts succeed in coming together to form that intangible something that has had audiences rapt for centuries. But, like such plays and dramas preceding it, the secrets always lie in its careful crafting. Nothing is accidental. Not the inclusion of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, not Maria’s splash of red jam, not the fish colouring book, not the open blue sky that becomes encroached by trees and cables as death lies in wait. In the hands of Chris Fewtrell, this was always going to be special.

Kylie’s new energy infused the first episode with a fresh optimism at the prospect of going somewhere where she had no past. “It feels like it’s been throwing it down my whole life” she told David, “I can finally chuck the umbrella and catch some rays.” To Gemma, she declares, “Life’s what you make it, if you don’t like it, you change it. That’s what I’m doing.” And after a beautiful scene with Gail in which she appeals to her love for David to make her understand why she needs to leave for Max and Lily’s sake, she announces to Audrey and Freddie“I get a shot at the person I always wanted to be.”

Of course, knowing as much as we did meant each of these lines were charged with a tragic inevitability. As she emerged from the Rovers on the phone to David, champagne in hand, and he exited the Bistro with Bethany, Max and Lily, cutting back and forward between them talking as they walked towards one another signalled the impending gulf between them. She appeared already unreachable by them, unable to be saved.

As I watched, I couldn’t help thinking about the claims that it would be something that had never been done before, and as Clayton attacked Gemma outside the kebab shop, and Kylie ran towards them, I was in denial that this could be what was to happen. Even as Clayton stabbed her, I couldn’t believe that that would be it, and spent the intervening half hour wondering at the possibilities. Maybe she stabbed Clayton with the bottle? No, he was clearly wielding the knife. Maybe there’d be a twist, like there was with Tina McIntyre? No, as it transpired. Kylie Platt would meet her end being stabbed outside a kebab shop. 

If we had been told this in 2010 when she first blazed on to the cobbles, we might have been less surprised. But I initially thought, considering how far she’s come, she deserved more than to meet her demise at the hands of someone who just entered the show and in such circumstances. But such is life, and therein lies the tragedy. What she had been waiting for was finally in her grasp, but would never come to pass.

The second episode was a masterpiece. As Kylie lay cradled in David’s arms on the cobbles, between the salon and the Rovers, Jack P. Shepherd and Paula Lane put in the performances of their lives. The love between the pair, the account she makes of her life in her dying moments, his desperation to stop it all from happening, was so beautiful and raw, you truly felt you were intimately witnessing a real death. 

Those looking on as they waited interminably for an ambulance were fittingly sparse and quiet. A sober Gail offers immense support, an incredulous Bethany weeps, Roy, with futile first aid kit, delivers with delicacy the sad realisation that “I don’t think there’s much we can do that you’re not already doing” and Sally offers one of the most powerful lines I’ve heard on the Street in some time, “it’s always just another day.”

Kylie’s final words are fittingly resonant. “It was great wasn’t it. We were great.” As she slips away, and broken hearted David lets out a perishing cry, I defy anyone not to be deeply moved. As he later told the children the news, I was similarly floored.

Now that I’ve seen it, I must say that I can see no necessity for us to have known in advance that she was going to die, and the potentially misinterpreted claim that what happened has never been done in soap before unfortunately has some people complaining instead of focussing on what was different, innovative and brilliant about its aftermath. It's quite clear now that if Corrie had intended for Kylie's actual killing to be ground breaking, Gail would never have mentioned Brian Tilsley. I would have also had Gemma find out the news in a more sensitive manner, and I would have reserved the Kate and Caz scenes for another day. But to address the criticisms of others, Craig's inaction, the proximity of the quite possibly closed medical centre and the length of time it took the ambulance to come are all simply viable circumstantial threads in the tapestry.

This powerful, unforgettable departure for Kylie, and by extension, Paula Lane, was a masterpiece in writing, performance and direction. It shows what Coronation Street remains capable of, and I hope with all my being that we see more of it. 

“We’re going to live our lives in colour” David tearfully assured her before evoking immense sympathy by revealing that he’d been looking on the internet at the kinds of fish you can see snorkelling in Barbados. Later held in bloodstained hands, all that remained of that dream was an aquatic themed colouring book.

I leave you with Beckett, whose words from Waiting for Godot provide the most apt of conclusions.  

Estragon: I remember the maps of the Holy Land. Coloured they were. Very pretty. The Dead Sea was pale blue. The very look of it made me thirsty. That's where we'll go, I used to say, that's where we'll go for our honeymoon. We'll swim. We'll be happy.

By Emma Hynes

www.emmahynes.net

Twitter: @ELHynes

Facebook: @EmmaHynesWrites

See also The Incomparable Kylie Platt in which I take a look back at this great Corrie character.

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Coronation Street Blog Interview: Jack P. Shepherd and Paula Lane

It has been an exciting week so far on the Coronation Street Blog. It started on Monday when my fellow blogger Ruth and I travelled to Manchester for an exclusive preview of Corrie’s big week which starts this Sunday, and since then we have been sharing our experiences of the day and bringing you our interviews with key cast members. Next up, are Jack P. Shepherd and Paula Lane who play David and Kylie Platt. 

Now, I’ve long been a fan of David Platt. But over the last year in particular, he has really come into his own. From deadpan references to his chequered family history to gallows humour at the most (in)appropriate moments, he never fails to make me laugh. I also marvel at his ability to cope, and wryly at that, with the worst situations imaginable as he courses coolly through life with an apparent absence of any discernible conscience. My Weatherfield Psycho blog from a number of months back covered all of this, but suffice to say I love what they've done with the character in the capable hands of Jack P. Shepherd. 

If David Platt doesn’t disappoint, neither does interviewing Jack.

We also now know that Paula Lane is leaving the street. I have very much enjoyed Kylie’s time on the cobbles, and she will be sorely missed. I wasn’t sure about the gobby sister of Becky Grainger at first, but she matured into a complex character with a catalogue of great storylines, and compelling performances, including last September’s live episode, and I am sad to see her go.

I’ve been lucky enough to interview Paula a number of times now, and she is always a pleasure to chat with.

So, on to the interviews.

The Corrie powers that be are remaining tight lipped  surrounding the discovery of Callum’s body, and believe me, you’ll be glad of this as you tune in to see for yourself.

But what could Jack and Paula tell me about what happens after he is found? “The police get involved, and all the main suspects are arrested; Gail, David, Kylie and Sarah” Jack tells me. “It’s a case of which stories are the same and which are different.”

Jack explained that, as you might expect, David is the one who tries to hold it together. “Sarah panics and cries a lot” he reveals, “I’m very evasive, [saying] I haven’t a clue, I don’t know how it got there. I try to shift the blame and say there were a lot of people after him.”

Jack grins as, speaking of David, he says “I’ve certainly gotten over [Callum's death]. I don’t think he’s got much of a conscience to be honest”. He notes that David is alright, Kylie is the middle ground, and poor Sarah is at the other end of the spectrum. 

Paula observed that the writers decided to have the girls respond differently since the live episode, otherwise there would’ve been a sameness which wouldn’t have worked as well. It has certainly been a great dynamic.

So how does Gail react? “She’s really shocked” Jack explains, “and I think she points the blame towards me. She thinks I’ve done it.”

Paula told me how she considers Kylie to be lucky in that she can take comfort from David, whereas Sarah doesn’t have that, but Kylie can be there for her. “I’m just trusting David’s advice” she says.

I asked Jack if he was glad to see the story coming to its conclusion. He explained, “When I first found out about the storyline it was the live episode and the producer, Stuart at the time, said ‘in 5 years time we’ll uncover the body’. I was like, wow, that’s a long storyline. I’m quite surprised it’s happened sooner, but I don’t mind it. I’m glad.”

I noted that many viewers thought there’d be nothing in the manhole, and asked if that was ever on the cards. “Not from us” replies Jack, who was amused at having heard the same speculation.

As Paula prepares to leave the soap, she’s asked if she’s excited, and replies “Yes I am.” Pointing at her baby bump, she continues, “I’m a bit preoccupied obviously with other things at the minute, but I’m sad as well, it’s bittersweet.”

I asked Paula if she had any roles in mind for the future, including theatre.

“It’s mixed to be honest” she told me, “there’s been a few theatre checks that have happened since I’ve announced I’m leaving, so I’ll just watch this space. But I’m kind of mindful of the fact that I need a bit of a mental rest as I’ve had six very very busy years. It’s quite exciting to see what’s on the horizon.”

Jack respects Paula’s choice to leave adding, “They are a good couple and work well together, so that’ll be a shame that will end, but it’s her decision.”

So, has David got his eye on anyone else? “No” Jack confirms, “I think there’d have to be another actor introduced, as I don’t think anybody sort of fits the bill on the Street at the minute, for David anyway.” At the suggestion of Gemma, he grins “Definitely not Gemma.”

This was a very enjoyable interview with plenty of laughs. It will be interesting to see what lies ahead for both the Platts, and Paula Lane as she departs. As I did on Monday in person, again, I wish her the very best of luck.

By Emma Hynes

www.emmahynes.wordpress.com

Twitter: @ELHynes

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