Coronation Street actress Sue Devaney was knocked for six when bosses told her about their plans for her character, Debbie Webster, to die after a drawn-out battle with dementia
Loved by viewers as the feisty owner of the Chariot Square Hotel – the centre of Weatherfield’s illicit liaisons, which has hosted everything from dodgy business meetings to a gay tea party – Debbie Webster is one of the best characters to grace the cobbles for years.
And when Coronation Street actress Sue Devaney, who plays her, was asked to consider a storyline in which Debbie is diagnosed with early onset dementia, she needed time out to take stock.
This week, as Debbie starts discovering the seriousness of her recent memory lapses, she will also have her own defining moment at the Chariot – leaving fans on tenterhooks, when her hunky fella Ronnie proposes.
READ MORE: Coronation Street legend Barbara Knox gives major update on future after 33 years
Sue, who was first approached about the heartbreaking storyline last September, says she had several discussions with her husband and close friends in the cast, as well as the producer, before agreeing to proceed.
She tells The Mirror: “I was a little bit frightened. It was a lot of information to process, because it’s not like a drama series where you might be doing it for six weeks. This is playing someone with dementia for one, two, three years. So, it was a case of ‘can I do it? Am I ready?’
“I don’t do things by halves. I’m either all in or all out. I like to research and get the best I can out of a script, so it can consume my life for as long as the story lasts.”
Recalling the meeting with cobbles boss Kate Brooks, Sue, 57, recalls: “Our first chat was really thorough. She said: ‘I love Debbie and I want you to tell this story. It’s going to be a heartbreaking journey of emotion and honesty. Sad, hopeful, uplifting and truthful. Will you do it?’
“I went home and didn’t sleep a wink that night. I talked it through with my husband. He said ‘what would be the reason for not doing it?’ I realised it was fear.
“I love playing Debbie, so I had to get my head around Debbie dying. And because I’m a woman of a certain age, I just like to potter and pootle about in the background and be the little comedy sidekick! The producer said it’s my time to take centre stage. That scares me a little!
“But this is such an important story to tell. I just had to do it. You read more and more about people being diagnosed with young onset dementia now, like the wonderful Pauline Quirke and Fiona Phillips. Dementia affects so many people and through storytelling on soaps it shows us all we are not alone.”
Viewers have already seen subtle changes in go-getting businesswoman Debbie, from starting to forget things, to losing her purse.
Concerned about what is happening, she seeks help and, in a life-changing doctor’s appointment, she is told she needs further tests as she may have early onset vascular dementia.
Sue, who lives in Yorkshire, has her own personal experience of dementia, having helped look after her father-in-law, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s seven years ago.
“He’s 90 and we’ve spent the past four years trying to sort out his care and finances,” Sue says. “At time, it was very hard and his behaviour could be erratic. Things have settled down now and he has round-the-clock care.”
Coronation Street is working with the charity Dementia UK on the storyline and Sue has joined several online dementia self-help groups.
Meanwhile, her best friend’s mum is a nurse and works with patients with dementia.
“Years ago, I used to sing in nursing homes, so I was around a lot of older dementia patients,” she recalls. “Also, I’m chatting a lot with a friend; his wife has young onset dementia.”
In heart-breaking scenes this week, hotelier Debbie’s fears are confirmed when a neurologist tells her that she has vascular dementia. Shocked, she decides to keep the diagnosis to herself for now as she’s not ready to share the news with her family.
Sue says: “Debbie is devastated. She’s heartbroken and she’s in denial. She’s wondering – ‘how long have I got? Who am I going to tell? ‘She decides just to carry on and brush it under the carpet.
“I remember when my mum was told my dad was dying from cancer. She’d tell me ‘he’s fine, it’s benign, it’s all fine.’ And of course it wasn’t. I now understand it was her way of protecting her children and my dad and herself. Denial of the inevitable.”
Agreeing to tackle the storyline means that Sue will eventually leave Coronation Street, but she could still be in it for up to three years and has not yet started to consider future work.
What happens next for Debbie remains to be seen – for both the viewers and for Sue.
“Our producer is really keen to tell me what the next instalments are for Debbie and I say ‘can I stop you there Kate! Don’t tell me!’” she says. “In real life you never know what’s around the corner, so I’ve decided to approach the dementia story very much like that.”
Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, Sue discovered a love of drama as a child.
By seven she was donning tap and ballet shoes and at 13 she joined Oldham Theatre Workshop – landing her first role at 14, working with Thora Hird in the TV drama In Loving Memory.
She recalls: “I then had an audition with the Coronation Street casting director. I said: ‘I’ve worked with Thora Hird, I think I’m ready to play a part in Coronation Street now!’”
Her cheeky approach paid off and she was cast as Kevin Webster’s younger sister Debbie, arriving on the cobbles in 1984, before leaving the following year.
During her long absence from Weatherfield, she was a successful jobbing actor for more than 40 years, clocking up roles in shows including Dinnerladies and Shameless.
But life hasn’t always been easy. When she was 17 her dad lost his business and the family were forced to move to a notoriously rough estate.
“My dad died when I was 26,” Sue says. “He had cancer. He was ill for a year. It was horrendous at the time.”
In 1994 she moved away to Bristol, after landing the role of paramedic Liz Harker in Casualty.
With the money she made, she bought her mum, who passed away when Sue was 37, a little house.
Sue, who nursed her mum for over a year, says: “It was an honour and a privilege. She was my best friend.”
Sue’s career went from strength to strength, but in her 40s she found herself de-railed after suffering severe symptoms during the perimenopause. “
My hormones were all over the place, crazy times and I couldn’t work,” she confides. “I didn’t want to leave the house or go to auditions. I lost my confidence completely and I didn’t know who I was.
“But life is a rollercoaster. We all have to deal with grief, loss and hardship and difficult times. It’s called living and some people do it better than others.”
Sue returned to Coronation Street in 2019, making sharp tongued Debbie a hit with viewers.
And while fans will wonder if she will find her happy ending with Ronnie, Sue has definitely found hers with her husband, retired BBC journalist Jim O’Farrell, who she married last year in North Yorkshire, three years after they got engaged.
“Late-starters!” she laughs. “I was very happily plodding along in life. I have amazing friends and family and I was content with my lot.
“Someone would say ‘do you want to go on this tour round the world for two years Sue?’ And I’d say: ‘oh yes, that sounds nice.’ I was never in one place long enough to find steady romance, nor was I looking.
“Then, just before I started back on Corri,e I went on a girlie holiday to Lanzarote. On the plane coming home a man got on looking very much like an intrepid explorer and my friend Ju said ‘oh, he looks like your type Sue.’
“We got chatting, well, she got chatting, I had my head in my hand bag, too shy, but we exchanged numbers and the rest is history!”
For more information: www.itv.com/coronationstreet and on Twitter: @itvcorrie
