After 11 years playing beloved vicar Billy Mayhew, Daniel Brocklebank has opened up about his Coronation Street departure

Coronation Street’s Daniel Brocklebank has expressed he has “nothing but love” as he revealed what he’ll miss most about his time on the cobbles.

The actor has become synonymous with his portrayal of Billy Mayhew on the ITV soap, having first graced Weatherfield’s streets in 2014.

Following an 11-year stint, Daniel has bid an emotional farewell and spoken exclusively to the ECHO about embarking on the next chapter of his career.

Whilst details surrounding his exit storyline remain closely guarded, Daniel is eager to look back fondly on his time with the show and has opened up about what he’ll miss the most.

The 46 year old made his debut as Billy, initially introduced as Sean Tully’s new partner, before romantic entanglements with Todd Grimshaw and subsequently Paul Foreman. The Weatherfield vicar quickly captured viewers’ hearts and featured prominently in several of the programme’s most significant storylines.

Last year, Billy’s on-screen husband Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) passed away in deeply moving scenes following his battle with motor neurone disease (MND). More recent episodes have depicted Billy’s struggles to cope with the devastating loss of his partner, reports the Liverpool Echo.

Daniel Brocklebank’s final scenes as Billy Mayhew will air in 2026 (Image: Lia Toby/Getty Images)

Daniel and Peter were honoured with the Best Partnership accolade at the 2024 Inside Soap Awards. The pair also collected the Best Storyline trophy at the Radio Times Soap Awards for their powerful depiction of Paul’s motor neurone disease journey.

The soap star has now wrapped up filming his final scenes, but there’s no rest for Daniel as he’s already taken on the leading role in Young Frankenstein The Musical at Liverpool’s Playhouse Theatre.

Whilst relishing the chance to dust off his tap shoes for the Liverpool production, Daniel has opened up about what he’ll miss most from his time on the cobbles.

Speaking to the ECHO, Dan revealed he’ll miss the friendships he’s forged, though he’s determined to stay connected with his former colleagues.

He explained: “I’ll miss the people. Having said that, the people that I am most close to, we speak all the time, we see each other all the time. I have no intention of leaving where I live in Manchester.”

Daniel has landed a role in Young Frankenstein (Image: ECHO)

He added: “The girl that plays my daughter, she only lives 10 minutes away from me so we’ll get to see each other all the time. We’ll just have to make more of an effort to see each other because rather than just having being able to bump into each other at work we’ll now have to arrange a coffee or a lunch.”

Following tradition, Daniel nabbed several of Billy’s cherished possessions as mementos from his Weatherfield days. He revealed: “Billy had a really lovely leather chair in his living room. That’s now in my bedroom upstairs.”

He went on: “I’ve got three sausage dogs and Billy had two pieces of artwork on his wall. One was the front end of a sausage dog, and one end was the back end of a sausage dog, but it’s like two pictures. So I have that.

“I also have a couple of the wedding photos from Billy and Paul’s wedding. And then just little things like photographs, a sash that Billy and Paul wore at their stag do. We also took some Polaroids at the wedding, which were part of the storyline, but I’ve got a few of those Polaroids.”

Beyond the keepsakes, Dan will treasure the memories he’s made during his time on the cobbles, recalling them with “nothing but absolute love”.

Peter Ash and Daniel created one of the soap’s most memorable storylines (Image: Dave Benett/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)

Speaking to the ECHO, he reflected: “I’ve got 11 years worth of memories as well. Eleven years is a long time to be working in one place. I’ve been an actor now for 32 years, and 11 of them were spent there. It does become like a big family.”

He explained how shared experiences bonded the cast: “During that 11 year period, you may have helped each other through all sorts of things, marriages, births, deaths, and you’ve supported each other through those sorts of events in life, which inevitably bring you closer to each other. So the relationships on a job like Corrie are far deeper cemented, purely and simply because of time.”

Dan went on to praise the variety of storylines he’s tackled over the years: “I’ve had so many great storylines over the years. Billy certainly wasn’t short of drama including fun things to do, some tragic things to do and some silly things to do. I mean, he should never have touched that heroin”, he laughed.

Summing up his experience, he said: “But I’ve loved my time at Corrie, and I will always look back on it with nothing but absolute love in my heart.”

Coronation Street is on ITV at 8pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday and available to stream from 7am on ITVX