Coronation Street‘s Sue Devaney has shared her reservations about Debbie Webster’s heartbreaking new storyline.
The fan-favourite character will soon be diagnosed with young onset dementia, and has already started showing signs of the memory loss disease. The long-running storyline will eventually lead to Debbie’s exit from the ITV soap.
Devaney was first approached about the tragic plot last year and – after several conversations with her husband, castmates and Corrie producer Kate Brooks – she finally agreed to proceed.
“I was a little bit frightened. It was a lot of information to process, because it’s not like a drama series where you might be doing it for six weeks. This is playing someone with dementia for one, two, three years. So, it was a case of, ‘Can I do it? Am I ready?'” she told the Mirror.
“I don’t do things by halves. I’m either all in or all out. I like to research and get the best I can out of a script, so it can consume my life for as long as the story lasts.”
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The actor had a “thorough” meeting with Brooks, as they talked through the upcoming plans for her character.
“[Brooks] said, ‘I love Debbie and I want you to tell this story. It’s going to be a heartbreaking journey of emotion and honesty. Sad, hopeful, uplifting and truthful. Will you do it?'” Devaney recalled.
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The star shared that she “didn’t sleep a wink that night” and later “realised it was fear” that was holding her back from taking on the storyline.
“I love playing Debbie, so I had to get my head around Debbie dying. And because I’m a woman of a certain age, I just like to potter and pootle about in the background and be the little comedy sidekick! The producer said it’s my time to take centre stage. That scares me a little!”
She added: “But this is such an important story to tell. I just had to do it. You read more and more about people being diagnosed with young onset dementia now, like the wonderful Pauline Quirke and Fiona Phillips. Dementia affects so many people, and through storytelling on soaps, it shows us all we are not alone.”
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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More information about dementia is available via organisations including the NHS and Dementia UK. Resources for readers in the US are available via the National Institutes of Health.