Bernie Winter’s past will continue to haunt her on Coronation Street as she deals with the demise of her son Paul Foreman. As viewers of the ITV soap will know, the character, played by Jane Hazlegrove, heartbreakingly witnesses her son’s decline following his diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease last year.
Paul discovered the heartbreaking news that he had the fatal, rapidly progressive disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, in scenes broadcast in April 2023. The former builder, who only discovered something was wrong after he was accidentally knocked over by Carla Connor in her Underworld Van when she was unknowingly drugged with LSD by Stephen Reid, kept the news from his loved ones.
However, the devastating news soon emerged and the family have since rallied behind Paul as the symptoms of the life-limiting disease continue to progress. Soon, Paul’s father, Denny, comes back into their lives after hearing that his son is dying through a radio interview with Amy Barlow.
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Bernie hides her shock at coming face to face with Denny and discovers that Paul is already dead and the interview was a recording. But Denny doesn’t believe her and follows her to the flat where Gemma and Paul are shocked to see their father. When Denny comments that Paul looks great for someone who is supposedly dead, Bernie freezes in horror.
Later, Bernie lets off steam to Dev about Denny, secretly afraid that Denny might talk about her past. Billy, meanwhile, reminds Paul that Denny beat him up when he was a kid and that he cannot be trusted, but when Paul invites Denny to watch a movie, Billy reluctantly leaves them to their fate.
Denny soon goes out for an ice cream and leaves Paul alone in the apartment. He runs into Gemma and begs her to let him meet his grandchildren. But while alone in the flat, Paul has a coughing fit and has trouble breathing. He calls an ambulance, but when the operator answers, he drops the phone. Denny then returns and is shocked to find Paul barely conscious. Meanwhile, Dev Alahan finds Bernie while rummaging through a shoebox of old letters and photos. When Dev wonders what she’s looking for, Bernie feels uneasy…
Following the star of the storyline, Jane opened up about how her own personal loss affects her time on the cobbles, while her character also prepares for tragedy. Speaking about discovering the MND storyline last year, Jane told Inside Soap: “I was very upset [when I found out about the storyline] like I adore Peter Ash [who plays Paul Foreman] so I was upset because this meant he was going. My Corrie family is a close-knit unit. I feel so lucky to work with all of them.”
She then talked about how her emotions had also increased when her own father died, adding to the publication: “I recently lost my father, so I know what this kind of grief is like. It’s been very emotional.”
Away from the ITV soap, Jane has the support of her wife as the Manchester actress has been married to fellow soap actor Isobel Middleton since 2015. Speaking to Lorraine Kelly on her ITV show in 2019, she opened up about her ‘beautiful’ wife and joked: “We don’t [worked alongside each other], which is probably why we’re still together. She is sensational, a very beautiful woman. I am very blessed.
“Last year we moved back to Manchester [Corrie]. It was time to return north for all kinds of reasons and that makes me very happy.” And Isobel herself is no stranger to the small screen having appeared in soaps that rival Corrie.
Isobel had three roles in Emmerdale as Dr. Lane in 2014, a lawyer at the trial of Simon McManus in 2018 and Jean Rawson in 2020. And in the BBC soap EastEnders she played Sadie Banks in 2002. Isobel hasn’t just had small soap stints, though. , because she has a glowing catalog of TV credits.
But she did share her excitement about her wife’s performance at the British Soap Awards a few years ago, as Isobel tweeted: “Very proud that my sublimely talented and hilarious wife has been nominated for Best Comedy Performance at the #soapawards2022. We can’t vote but if I could I would do so repeatedly.
In the 1990s, Jane starred opposite the late Robbie Coltrane in the ITV detective thriller Cracker, and also appeared in The Ruth Rendle Mysteries, The Bill and, like her wife, Casualty. However, one of her final roles is in the Channel 5 drama Compulsion as Dr. Wilhemina Medlock and this year she appeared in radio drama The Archers as Anna Tregorran.
And playing Bernie wasn’t Jane’s first appearance in Corrie either. She actually played Sue Clayton in Corrie in 1985, the youngest daughter of Harry and Connie Clayton. Speaking to Inside Soap, Jane opened up about that long-forgotten role, saying: “Well, it was only two episodes a week back then, so it was a completely different beast to what it is now.
“I was in the green room with some legends, Bill Tarmey [Jack Duckworth]Barbara Knox [Rita]Thelma Barlow [Mavis Riley], so I was a little worried. But before she became known for her cobblestone alter-ego, Jane was probably best known for starring in the role of Kathleen ‘Dixie’ Dixon on and off for 20 years in Casualty.
However, she first appeared on TV in 1984 at the age of 16. Jane appeared in a TV movie called Threads, in which she starred as a character named Alison Kemp. She later starred in a number of other TV shows before getting her big break on the show How We Used To Live, when she won a recurring role as the character Maggie Selby between 1984 and 1987.
Despite her fame, she revealed her battle with ‘Imposter Syndrome’ in 2019. She told presenter Lorraine Kelly: “It’s quite difficult when I turn up. I have a tendency to throw things at the television. I’m quite hard on myself. I think that’s important, right? Imposter syndrome – that at any moment I might say: are you Jane Hazelgrove? Yes, go away.”
She added: “The arrogance of youth – I wasn’t nervous at all then. Now I’m a woman in my 50s, it was really scary because it’s Coronation Street. It’s a big gig and I want to show and I don’t want to disappoint myself or the family or anything.”