Now that Lisa Riley has clarified why it will be so powerful to witness this side of Paddy (Dominic Brunt), Emmerdale is going to explore a heartbreaking suicide plot with him.
Things are going to get even harder for Paddy, who has been struggling with his mental health for months, as he starts making plans to commit suicide in upcoming episodes.
He’ll abruptly leave the community without alerting his loved ones, and in scenes that will air next month, he’ll start saying veiled farewells as he moves on with his plans.
After feeling alone as a result of his wife Chas’ (Lucy Pargeter) affair with Al Chapman, his mental health began to deteriorate (Michael Wildman).
Lisa Riley, who plays Paddy’s best friend Mandy, has recently clarified how crucial this plot would be.
When she appeared on Lorraine on Thursday, she added, “We are confronting depression in its most comprehensive form, and Emmerdale handles it well.”
“We saw it last year with the Alzheimer’s and stroke narratives, and this year it will be about suicide,” the speaker said.
Speaking about the relationship between their characters, Lisa noted that Mandy was a rock for her buddy and that the two of them genuinely loved each other.
She claimed that Mandy and Paddy would allow her to support Paddy all the time, without passing judgement on him.
She added that they had been collaborating with groups like Samaritan’s to give viewers the confidence to ask for support.
We want to portray the story accurately, so it’s a slow burner, she said.
She further stated that in addition to the “laughing and love” that we had come to expect from the couple, we would now be seeing “loyalty and affection” play out on screen.
The fact that the creators used two well-known humorous characters to tell this story and emphasise its seriousness, she claimed, “had an impact.”
It would have a “Hell of a lot of impact,” Lorraine continued, coming from characters who viewers typically associated with a “little of fun and foolishness.”
Lisa began working on the soap opera as Mandy in 1995 and remained there for six years before departing to focus on other projects like The Bill, Waterloo Road, and Three Girls.
Getting back to Emmerdale
She advised her audience to try to ignore negative social media commentary.
It crushes my heart because I want them to go in and have that confidence and do what I did when I was a child, but I say don’t read that crap that will hurt your feelings on social media because it does effect the young ones.