Wednesday 21 August 2013

Julie Hesmondhalgh on Hayley cancer story: "Best episodes I've done"

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog July 2013, reposted to this blog with permission.)

There's an excellent short video on the official Coronation Street website at itv.com/corrie with Julie Hesmondhalgh as she gives her first on-screen interview about Hayley and Roy's huge storyline.

Julie said: "The episodes this week are just beautiful."

"It's only when the consultant talks about Roy that she falls to peices." And then we see the consultant asking Hayley: "You mentioned a husband, can you rely on him for sumpport?" 

"Oh yes, you can", we said on our sofa, last night when we watched this scene.

Julie talks about filming the powerful scenes between Hayley, Sylvia and Roy when she tells them she's got pancreatic cancer. "The words hung in the air on the set and everyone was a little bit quiet afterwards because it's something that affects everyone. Corrie does that well, it makes something universal, personal, like the transgender storyline."

We then see a scene of Hayley telling Roy she doesn't want anyone knowing about the cancer.  Julie says these scenes are "the best and my favourite five episodes I've ever done. Hayley being irritated by Roy, the Sylvia stuff undercutting everything and at the end Roy and Hayley coming together and talking about what to do in the future. That was pretty hard to do, and it'll be pretty hard to watch.

"The storyline honours their relationship and their love story, it's fitting and it's proper and it matters, it's what people are living with every single day and I think it's important to tell those stories."

And Julie Hesmondhalgh is promoting the petition to provide more funding and awareness for pancreatic Cancer to aid long overdue progress in earlier detection and, ultimately, improved survival rates.  Help Julie get 20,000 signatures - Hayley's legacy  - sign the petition at




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