This Christmas on Coronation Street will be Debbie Webster's (Sue Devaney) last. Actor Vinta Morgan, who plays Debbie's husband Ronnie Bailey, has promised many beautiful festive moments before the inevitable heartbreak.
Debbie's battle with dementia has turned her life upside down, as well as the lives of everyone close to her – and none more so than Ronnie. Since their fairytale wedding – which ended in a car crash – Ronnie has stood by Debbie through thick and thin. Even when her son Carl Webster (Jonathan Howard) gaslit her into going to prison for his own reckless driving, Ronnie never gave up on her.
Ronnie's role changes as Debbie's condition worsens
Debbie's condition has taken a recent and dramatic turn for the worse, forcing Ronnie's role to tragically change from lover and partner to carer. With the disease approaching its final stages, Morgan explained how his character is dealing with the transition.
'Ronnie is not entirely sure if he's up to this challenge. But he feels he has no other option because of his moral compass, because of the person he is, and because when he gives his loyalty, he means it to the end. He's not someone to shy away from a challenge, so he's going to meet the challenge as best as he can,' Morgan said.
'But there are some challenges that are more difficult to comprehend and to sustain an effort against. Realising how mountainous this task is and that he may not be equipped to do it all frightens him and weakens him. But again, he doesn't want to show that to her, he wants to be this rock, this knight in shining armour for her.'
Support group misunderstanding causes friction
Ronnie can't hide his fear forever. Upcoming episodes will see him struggling to cope with Debbie's increasing symptoms, to the point that he joins a support group. Unfortunately, when Debbie hears from Abi Webster (Sally Carman-Duttine) that he's been hugging another woman from the group, she gets the wrong end of the stick and suspects he's cheating.
This is just one example about how dementia affects all aspects of the couple's relationship, including sex and intimacy, and according to Morgan – the worst is yet to come for Ronnie.
'Now that his head has been opened to the understanding of what dementia is and some of the characteristics of it, he's hyper-aware about stuff. The things he's really aware of during the week you're talking about are the idea of consent, things being consensual, and the idea of her memory displacement, especially with long-term memory versus short-term memory,' Morgan said.
'She could be in a situation that seems normal, then suddenly she says something or relates to something in a way that's different to what the situation is. For instance, to give you an example: there could be a situation where they're getting intimate, so to speak, and then she happens to call him a different name or think he's a different person, and then finds out it's not that person.'
'Ronnie's just very scared. He seeks and is definitely passionately involved in that, because, that's what their relationship is built on, an enormous passion for each other. But he never wants to put her in any position where she may be taken advantage of, and he doesn't want to feel that way. The last thing he wants is her suddenly freaking out because she thinks he's someone else.'
Christmas scenes promise light before darkness
With Debbie's death drawing ever nearer, fans are hoping for some heartwarming Christmas scenes to give the Coronation Street legend one last hurrah before the end. Morgan promises a Christmas that doesn't disappoint… although things get 'dark' after that.
'Christmas has got some beautiful scenes! What the audience can get more of is that there's going to be some downs, but there's going to be some ups. There are going to be some moments where the audience will go, 'Oh, if they could just be trapped in that moment!'' Morgan said.
'We'll let them stay in that moment for a bit, and then he's going to go on a roller-coaster ride where we're going to go down into the depths of some really dark stuff. Which is still going to have some light and love in it, of course, that's the whole thing that makes it excruciating. But it's really going to go into the realms of what the reality is like, really.'
'We're not going to sugarcoat it; we're going to show it for what it is. Hopefully, it will develop conversations and help raise awareness.'
