Gay actor Daniel Brocklebank exits Corrie in tragic death: ’11 years worth of memories’
Daniel Brocklebank played gay vicar Billy Mayhew in Coronation Street for 11 years. (Getty/ITV)
Daniel Brocklebank played gay vicar Billy Mayhew in Coronation Street for 11 years. (Getty/ITV)
Coronation Street star Daniel Brocklebank has said he “can’t believe” he’s saying goodbye to the soap, after his gay character, vicar Billy Mayhew, was brutally killed off.
Last night saw the merging of two of the UK’s biggest-ever soaps, Coronation Street and Emmerdale, for a one-off special starring some of the shows’ best-loved characters.
Corriedale saw characters from both soaps involved in a violent, multi-car crash, when estranged husbands John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) and Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) of Emmerdale collided with estranged wives Becky Swain (Amy Cudden) and her estranged wife Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) of Coronation Street. Perhaps there’s some truth to the ‘gays can’t drive’ stereotype…
Billy, who has been played by Brocklebank since the character’s inception in 2014, was driving a minivan filled with cobbles residents leaving Debbie Webster’s (Sue Devaney) wedding. Swerving to avoid Lisa’s estranged fiance Carla Connor (Alison King), who had ran into the road to alert the van of the crash, Billy toppled the vehicle over, and was knocked unconscious.
While the minibus passengers gradually escaped the minibus, Billy remained trapped – only for Theo (James Cartwright), the abusive boyfriend of Billy’s ex Todd (Gareth Pierce) to save him. After Billy remarked that the abuser still had “some good” in him, Theo strapped him back into his seat, and let the minibus explode, killing Billy instantly.
The character’s death marks the end of an 11-year tenure on the soap for Daniel Brocklebank, who told fans in a video message following his departure that he “can’t believe” he’s leaving the show.
“I can’t believe I’m sat here recording my goodbyes. And not just goodbyes but thank yous. They have been and always will be such a special part of my life. I have loved every minute of being Billy,” he said in a video posted on Coronation Street‘s social media.
In an interview with the Liverpool Echo, the actor said that he has “nothing but love” for the soap.
“I’ll miss the people. Having said that, the people that I am most close to, we speak all the time, we see each other all the time. I have no intention of leaving where I live in Manchester,” he told the publication, adding that Harriet Bibby, who plays Billy’s on-screen daughter Summer, lives 10 minutes from him.
“I’ve got 11 years worth of memories as well,” the actor continued. “Eleven years is a long time to be working in one place. I’ve been an actor now for 32 years, and 11 of them were spent there. It does become like a big family.”
He continued: “But I’ve loved my time at Corrie, and I will always look back on it with nothing but absolute love in my heart.”
Throughout Billy’s time on the soap, he dealt with a number of prolific storylines, including his relationship and marriage to Paul Foreman (Peter Ash). Paul died from a motor neurone disease in 2024.
In 2023, Daniel Brocklebank and Peter Ash spoke to PinkNews about the portrayal of their characters’ relationship, and reflected on straight actors playing gay roles. While Brocklebank is gay, Ash is not.
“Our job, essentially, is to pretend to be people we’re not,” Brocklebank said on the contentious topic.
“If you’re saying that only gay people should play gay roles, if I, as a gay man, was turned down for a straight role because I was gay, wouldn’t that be deemed homophobic? It’s always been an interesting dichotomy,” he continued.
“If somebody’s right for the role, what I do in my personal life should bear no relevance to the character I’m playing on screen, because they’re not me.”
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