Coronation Street has aired a sad exit for one character – seven years after her Cobbles debut.
Encouraged by Paul Foreman, Summer has decided she needs to go out and see the world and signed up for a special new course in Boston. She had initially said she didn’t want to go because of Paul’s motor neurone disease diagnosis but he told her she shouldn’t put her life on hold and she headed off in a taxi in tonight’s episode.
Summer has been on the soap for seven years, when she arrived as the daughter of Drew Spellman, an old friend of Billy Mayhew. When Drew died, Summer moved in with Billy and has lived there ever since, and now has two more dads in Paul and Todd.
The character was initially played by Matilda Freeman between 2017 and 2020, with Harriet Bibby having taken over the role for the last four years. It is not known whether this is a permanent departure for Harriet or whether she will be back.
One character who will make a permanent exit from the ITV soap is Paul Foreman star Peter Ash, with it believed that Paul could die this year in sad scenes after getting his MND diagnosis following an accident last year.
One character who will make a permanent exit from the ITV soap is Paul Foreman star Peter Ash, with it believed that Paul could die this year in sad scenes after getting his MND diagnosis following an accident last year.
Speaking about his exit last year, he told the Mirror and other press: “I was called into the producer’s office late last year, and he said we’ve got this very big storyline for you, which will be a great thing to do, but it will mean an eventual exit. I had mixed feelings obviously. I’ll be sad to leave the show. It’s an amazing job, I’ve met fantastic people. I’ll be sad to leave but at the same time, I’m quite happy to be involved in such a powerful storyline which will hopefully bring awareness to it. It’s a double edged sword.”
Producer Iain Macleod added at the time: “Motor Neurone Disease is something that many people might have heard of but perhaps don’t know a lot about, even given the recent cases of public figures talking about their experiences of living with the condition. A show like Coronation Street is uniquely placed to show the day-to-day reality of dealing with an illness that gradually erodes the physical attributes that you perhaps take for granted, changing forever the way you interact with the world around you.”
