Coronation Street star Peter Ash has opened up about his time on the cobbles, five months after leaving his role as Paul Foreman.

Paul first appeared on our screens in 2018, as David Platt’s (Jack P Shepherd) prison cell mate.

After his release, Paul made himself at home on Coronation Street, and found himself at the centre of some huge storylines.

Throughout his six years on the show, Peter’s character became involved with vicar Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank), eventually marrying him in Corrie’s first ever same-sex wedding.

Another emotional storyline saw Paul reveal that he had been sexually abused growing up by Bernie Winter’s (Jane Hazlegrove) boyfriend, Kel.

His final story on the show saw him diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which led to his death in September 2024.

‘Corrie, for any UK actor, let alone a northern actor is a dream job,’ Peter told Nottinghamshire Live. ‘It’s a British institution going for 60-odd years.

‘To have had six years on it myself I still have to pinch myself when I really think about it. I loved every minute of it. I was working with a great team on Corrie.’

Reflecting on finding out his final storyline would lead to his eventual exit from the show, Peter added: ‘It was a bit of a blur, mixed reactions really. I was sad to be leaving a job that is Corrie but also privileged that they trusted me with such a big storyline.

‘I wasn’t saying I wanted to leave, it was just one of those things.

‘The idea of doing a MND storyline was floating around for a while but I guess it was who do you give that to and I think they must have seen something in me maybe that I would be able to do it.

‘Obviously now that it’s finished, I can say it’s the proudest job I’ve ever done, that work on Corrie. I’m made up with it all.’

As well as the emotional toll the storyline took, Peter explained the challenges he faced physically while playing a character with MND.

‘The hardest part was all the physical stuff when Paul’s functions started to go. That was very tricky, you want to portray it right, you don’t want to misrepresent it or anything, and again when his speech started to go that was another level of trickiness.

‘It was tough doing the storyline over the last year-and-a-half.

‘I wasn’t too bad when I got home – I could switch off from it all but there were some days where we’d be in the studio all day doing really emotional stuff and it wiped you out, you’re exhausted after it but then again you feel like you’ve done a good day’s work as well.’

Since leaving the ITV soap, Peter has starred in panto, and is now treading the boards in the UK tour of Picture You Dead, alongside Emmerdale star Fiona Wade.