As former England rugby union captain and 2003 World Cup winner, Lewis Moody, 47, touched the nation by revealing his own MND diagnosis, Emmerdale and Corrie star Jonathan recalls his dad Bill’s six-year battle with the disease
Famous as a soap villain in Emmerdale and Corrie, Jonathan Wrather says the most difficult role of his life was supporting his dad through his six-year battle with motor neurone disease.
“MND is a cruel disease,” Jonathan, 56, tells The Mirror. “It causes muscle wasting and affects the nerves in the brain and spinal cord.
“It wastes away everything – even the muscles you don’t see, like those you use to breathe and speak.”
As former England rugby union captain and 2003 World Cup winner, Lewis Moody, 47, touched the nation by revealing his own MND diagnosis, Jonathan recalls how his dad, Bill, eventually became bedridden and could no longer communicate.
“There have been a lot of high-profile sport individuals – like Rob Burrow – who suffered with MND,” says Jonathan. “MND is like cancer – it’s indiscriminate.”
Bill, one of around 5,000 people in the UK to have MND at any given time, had a slow-onset form of the disease and died in December 2023, aged 84,
Recalling their mad last drive together in one of Bill’s beloved vintage cars, Jonathan recalls getting up to leave after enjoying a picnic in Macclesfield Forest only for his dad to lose the strength in one arm and hand.
He laughs: “He was still driving at this point and I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but I can remember having to change the gears while he operated the clutch – he didn’t have full use of his arm to do it himself!
“It’s a fond memory of our last drive tearing around country lanes, but it was also when I realised the disease had taken hold and things were shifting.”
Best known for playing conman Joe Carter in Coronation Street in the early Noughties and Pierce Harris in Emmerdale – a rapist and murderer, who was jailed for life after killing his estranged wife’s boyfriend in 2020, but has since died – he is now using his talent to raise awareness of MND.
And tonight he will be appearing at Rye Arts Festival with Sally Bayly (CORR) in Licenced to Thrill – a celebration of James Bond – in aid of MND research.
“Everyone imagines being 007!,” he chuckles. “Sadly, I think the ship has sailed on that one for me!”
Also known for parts in Cracker, Clocking Off and Casualty, dad-of-two Jonathan, who lives in Cheshire with his wife Katharina, is a devoted family man.
He adds: “I made a conscious decision to be at home while my kids were very young. I love being a dad and it’s important for me to be around them. My wife and I both work and we raise them togethe, but now they are a little older, it’s easier to take on other fun opportunities like the MND fundraiser and focus on my acting career when it takes me away from home”.
Jonathan, who ran a juicing company for three years – which he started just before Covid – and has also been introducing kids to Shakespeare at an after school club, will be back on prime time TV later this year in a new series of ITV’s Professor T, alongside Ben Miller and Juliet Stevenson.
He plays Bradley Sanders, an actor-come producer in the whodunnit, adding: “The show has a slightly quirky, mysterious edge and a few twists. I enjoyed it a lot.”
For now, he is happy to be raising money for MND and praises his stepmother and the live-in carers who looked after his dad at the end of his life.
He says: “I have immense respect and admiration for the carers who looked after him. End of life care is not easy.
“And I feel immensely lucky that I spent a lot of time with my dad during his decline.”