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Tonight’s episode of Coronation Street will open with Aidan’s (played by Shayne Ward) father Johnny Connor (Richard Hawley) discovering he has taken his life the night before. Although there

were no signs of Aidan’s mental health problems, Johnny spirals into guilt over the loss of his son. Things are worsened when he realises all of the good deeds done by Aidan in recent days

were his final acts. This morning Johnny actor Richard appeared on Lorraine where he spoke about the upcoming episodes, and Shayne’s performance. He started by confirming that Johnny had

absolutely “no idea” about Aidan’s depression. Richard said: “I think Shayne played the whole thing beautifully, really. “He managed to play the disconnect between everyone perfectly. “It’s

almost two performances he’s got going on: Outside he was fine and inside he was crumbling. He also revealed he had experienced a similar situation in real life, making Aidan’s story that

much more real for him. “I’ve had experience of pretty much the exact same story a number of times, actually. “We had this experience at Corrie, too, so everybody wanted to do this show very

powerfully. “And certainly in our performances we tried to honour our friends and family. “I almost want [the story] to be a moment where everybody can be touched by it.” Richard went on to

talk about his campaign of raising awareness about suicide, and how people can contribute and help prevent it. “It’s a story of invisible pain,” Richard continued. “As well as talking about

it we need to kickstart an infrastructure to battle it. “There’s a lot of work to do before the very end of the road. “This is a cultural shift that needs to happen around masculinity -

part of the problem men have is how we are supposed to be. “We don’t think we’re supposed to feel vulnerable.” He added he believed the soap had handled the story “incredibly well” and went

on to hint that “things will be set up through this that will be built upon.” He finished: “For me it’s important how we take [the story] from here and how we build upon it.” _CORONATION

STREET CONTINUES TONIGHT AT 7.30PM ON ITV._ _FOR CONFIDENTIAL SUPPORT CALL THE SAMARITANS IN THE UK ON 116 123 OR VISIT A LOCAL SAMARITANS BRANCH._