Coronation Street star Sue Devaney has revealed that she’s ‘making the most’ of playing Debbie Webster, who was diagnosed with dementia in emotional scenes last year.
Debbie is one of the ITV soap’s most beloved characters and one that harks back to the Corrie of old, so news that the character would be written out saw fans launch a campaign to try and save her.
The storyline in question kicked off last year, with Debbie absolutely devastated to receive her diagnosis as star Sue delivered some of her finest work to date.
Debbie isn’t going anywhere just yet and with the storyline a long-running one it is thought that she will be on the show for quite some time.
Earlier this year, she proved pivotal to the long-awaited Corriedale crossover, which saw Coronation Street join forces with Emmerdale for the first time ever.
Debbie’s dementia was used by twisted brother Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard), who was driving the car that crashed into a minibus with Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) – who died in the tragedy – trapped inside and thus the hotelier was sent to prison.
But after months of torment, she was finally released in April, with upcoming scenes seeing her cut ruthless son Carl off for good after he once again tries to get his hands on her hotel.
Star Sue has certainly had plenty of great material to get her teeth into over the past year but, with Debbie’s condition progressing, the actress revealed that she is relishing every minute.
‘I think when an actor gets to a certain age they think: “This is quite nice. I can go home every night, I can have my tea, I’m not living out of a suitcase”, she said of her role on the cobbles.
‘And it’s nice to have a regular wage, because as an actor you never know what’s next. So as you get older you think “This is quite nice.” But if it’s not to be, it’s not to be.
The beloved soap icon told BANG Showbiz: ‘It’s only in soap where you think, “I’ve got a job for a while.” But we never know when it’s going to come to an end, or the character is going to be killed off, so you just have to make the most of it.’
Sue also revealed that she doesn’t yet know what her final scenes will entail and that she ‘doesn’t like’ to know as she’s enjoying getting the scripts and ‘playing along’ with it.
