Tuesday, 31 October 2017

Daniel Brocklebank Interview: Billy's fight with Peter Barlow

(This post was originally posted by Flaming Nora on the Coronation Street Blog October 2017, reposted to this blog with permission.)


How has Todd and Billy found parenting up until this point?
Surprisingly Todd has taken to it easier than Billy; Billy has been stressed out by the whole thing. Both love having Summer but with Billy being a vicar and very moralistic, he wants to be a good parent and he still wants to be good at his job yet he wants to be fun and be a good partner to Todd so it’s completely changed Billy and Todd’s dynamic. Todd is winning so far in the parenting stakes.

What’s Billy’s thoughts when he sees Summer being loaded into the ambulance?
Billy’s terrified. He promised Drew he would take care of Summer and within a few months of them taking her on, she’s already heading into an ambulance so there’s not only a lot of worry for her, Billy has not been able to keep his promise to Drew.

Peter tries to apologise and explain  - what’s Billy’s reaction to this?
Billy sees red. He loses his temper and certainly reacts in a way that not only shocks Peter but shocks himself.

Billy flies at Peter and punches him...
It’s rare that Billy’s temper flares but he does have one and that was a choice of mine when I first started here. A lot of TV vicars I have seen have always been a bit wet and sipid and it was important for me that Billy wasn’t that. I thought it was a more interesting take; yes he is a vicar, yes that is a vocational position but that doesn’t mean that Billy is not flawed. Just because he is a member of the clergy, of course it doesn’t mean that he can’t have those idiosyncratic parts of his personality that don’t necessarily marry with the job that people think he has got. This is a side of Billy that he has tried to suppress for various reasons which will come out in other ways later on...

How does Todd react to what Billy has done?
Todd is horrified. Let’s not forget that Todd is not an angel nor blameless in a lot of ways but Todd is horrified because Billy’s actions put their adoption potential at risk with Summer. Todd’s reaction comes from that angle rather than the fact that Billy’s hit somebody.

What was the filming scenes like to punch?
Chris is amazing to work with. We had a fight co ordinator and we all discussed how we felt it should come across because I still wanted to keep it in the confines that was Billy. But I think viewers be shocked, I was certainly shocked to read it when I first got the scripts! It’s going to be interesting!

What is the best thing about working with Chris Gascoyne?
Chris is awesome, he is a well versed actor with years and years of experience so when you are working with someone like that there is a comfortability where you can discuss and sit and chat and do workshop things. Chris is great and I am loving working with him.

What advice would you give Billy?
The story that we are playing out is explaining why Billy is the way he is, we are not changing who he is so the advice I would give is keep your head, take a deep breath, count to ten and think before you react.







Tvor @tvordlj on Twitter

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