A devastating event in Coronation Street brings several of the male characters together to open up about mental health in a forthcoming episode, after Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) gets news about his daughter Asha (Tanisha Gorey).
Asha has been going through turmoil after experiencing some horrific events while working as a paramedic. A difficult shift culminated in being racially abused and attacked by a woman called Naomi (Melissa Batchelor). This triggered panic attacks for Asha, who became very withdrawn as a result.
In an upcoming episode it’s all too much for her and she knocks back a bottle of wine before heading out.
She’s later found by Theo (James Cartwright) and Amy (Elle Mulvaney) and an ambulance is called. By the time Dev gets to his daughter, the paramedics are questioning whether she’s also taken drugs alongside the alcohol – and Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) tentatively suggests to Dev that possibly Asha has deliberately tried to end her life.
In the wake of this, there’s a sombre mood in the Rovers later. Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine) has been encouraged by Sally (Sally Dynevor) to go to the pub with his mates despite the fact that it’s their anniversary.
With Kevin (Michael Le Vell) trying to come to terms with the end of his marriage to Abi (Sally Carman), Sally hopes that her current husband might be able to cheer her ex-husband up a bit.
Also in the pub is Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) and Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall). Tyrone is also going through a tough time, having recently been seriously injured in a hit-and-run. He’s currently using a wheelchair and faces a long, difficult rehabilitation and an uncertain future.
But all their thoughts are with Dev, keeping vigil at the hospital with his daughter. The thought that such a bright young woman, who’s been highly respected for doing such a responsible job as a paramedic, should contemplate ending her own life is a sobering thought.
The men present open up about their own struggles. Each of them admits he’s been dealing with his own problems by bottling them up, but they all agree that it’s much healthier to share their worries with each other.
Of course Dev isn’t present at this discussion, because his priority is to be with Asha. He’s definitely in need of support, though, as he struggles with his emotions. He tells Bernie that part of his feels angry with Asha for being prepared to put her family through so much pain if they lost her.
‘I think he’s berating himself more than anybody there, and it comes out because we always do that, don’t we?’ Jimmi Harkishin told us.
‘We only show our true emotions to the people that are closest to us because it’s just easier to do it that way. Dev goes and takes out all his frustrations, his anger, his self-doubt and recriminations with Bernie.
‘But when he goes back to the hospital, he’s very, very gentle with his daughter, caring and apologetic, and then he walks out there, and then he’s angry and he’s crying, and then he goes back to the hospital, and his daughter never sees any of that. There’s a massive mask that just keeps slipping as soon as he leaves her.
‘I think you do that as a father, if something goes wrong with your children, there is a massive part of you as a father who thinks, “Was it me? Was it something that I could have or should have done?”’