The Billy Mayhew star has bid farewell to the cobbles after 11 years

Coronation Street’s Daniel Brocklebank has shared a huge “coincidence” in a major storyline as his time on the cobbles comes to an end. The actor is best known for his role as Billy Mayhew on the ITV soap since he first appeared in Weatherfield in 2014. Daniel has said an emotional goodbye and has spoken to the ECHO, reminiscing on 11 years’ worth of memories.

The 46-year-old actor first appeared on-screen as Billy, who was the new partner of Sean Tully, before dating Todd Grimshaw and then Paul Foreman. The Weatherfield vicar soon became a fan favourite and has been at the heart of some of the show’s major storylines.

One story in particular will go down in Coronation Street history. In 2024, Billy’s on-screen husband Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) died in heartbreaking scenes after a battle with motor neurone disease (MND).

The two characters took viewers along on their emotional journey as Paul came to terms with living with the disease, while his family members including Billy, Bernie and Gemma learned how to care for Paul under these new heartbreaking circumstances.

Peter and Daniel worked tirelessly to make the storyline a powerful and realistic portrayal, and were praised by viewers, including those living with MND.

The two actors took home the award for Best Partnership at the Inside Soap Awards in 2024. They also received the award for Best Storyline at the Radio Times Soap Awards.

Daniel recently told the ECHO that the MND storyline was more personal to him than fans may have originally realised. He said: “I’ve been working with the MND Association for 23 years. I’m an ambassador for the charity, so it felt like a very personal story to tell.

“I lost my grandfather to MND and then because of my connection to the charity, over the 23 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve now known hundreds of people living with MND or families affected by MND.”

Despite the charity being close to home, Corrie bosses were unaware of Daniel’s connection and giving him the storyline was a “complete coincidence”.

He told the ECHO: “Although it was a complete coincidence that they gave that storyline with Paul, I have to be honest, I would have been seething if they’d given it to another character, purely because it’s a subject that I’m so passionate about, but also very knowledgeable of, and I think that that helped with the storyline.”

He drew upon aspects of his own life in his portrayal of Paul’s carer Billy. He told the ECHO: “Billy was the carer in that scenario, but I’ve been that in real life. My family have been that in real life, so I know exactly what that is like.

“So it felt like a real honour to be able to portray something so personal to me, so publicly, and to be able to open the audience’s eyes to what it is like for somebody living with MND and the people that are surrounding them.”

After 11 years of emotional storylines, whirlwind drama and building relationships, Daniel has now bid an emotional farewell to the cobbles.

He said: “I’ve loved my time at Corrie, and I will always look back on it with nothing but absolute love in my heart.”

He added: “I’ve had so many great storylines over the years. Billy certainly wasn’t short of drama including fun things to do, some tragic things to do and some silly things to do. I mean, he should never have touched that heroin!”