Daniel Brocklebank's blunt admission as he reflects on ITV Coronation Street exit

Daniel Brocklebank has opened up about his upcoming exit from Coronation Street. The legendary actor, who is set to continue in his role for the foreseeable future, will depart from the ITV soap after 11 years next year.

But while the actor who plays vicar Billy Mayhew admits that he was "sad" to be leaving the soap opera, he teased a "major new storyline" which is yet to be revealed. Daniel, 45, joined the soap in 2014 and has since taken on a series of big storylines, most famously, his partner, Paul, battling Motor Neurones Disease, a cause which has a personal link to Daniel.

Speaking about his exit from the soap, Daniel exclusively told the Mirror: "11 years is a long time, but I've been acting professionally for 31/32 years now. As a freelancer, as a jobbing actor – jobs end, that's what happens, contracts finish. The difference is that with a job like Corrie is that, potentially, you're there for longer than the term of your contract.

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"I would have been there 11 years by the time I go. It's never not in the back of your mind that the contract you're on could be your last." One thing that Daniel is excited for is the Emmerdale and Coronation Street crossover, which will see the soaps join forces for a special hour-long episode in January next year.

Although details remain unknown, sources have hinted that the cast is currently in the process of discovering who is involved in the upcoming episode. "We're all very excited for it," Daniel gushed. He went on to add: "It's never been done before, none of us know anything about it at the moment.

"It's all being kept very cloak and dagger, but it is very exciting that these two universes are colliding." One storyline that remains close to Daniel's heart is Paul's MND journey, and Daniel's own connection with the condition affected him years before he took on the storyline.

"My connection to the MND Association goes back 23 years," Daniel revealed. He went on to add: "My grandfather had motor neurone disease, so that is how I'm connected to the MND society. The fact that we ended up doing an MND storyline on Coronation Street was a complete coincidence.

"The producers had no idea of my connection to the illness or the charity," Daniel states that he personally didn't learn anything about the condition through the show, as he and his family had already been on the same journey that Billy and Paul went through. He added that he used the opportunity to commemorate his grandfather and the people whom he knew who had been living with the condition.

"With everything that our storyline did and simultaneously, the wonderful Rob Burrow and his wife Lindsay did, I've seen more awareness raised for MND in the last sort of two or three years than I've seen in the last two decades. That's been the most beautiful thing to come out of it all."

Daniel says that the MND community is not like anything he's ever known before. "It's like a club that nobody wants to be in," he said, but added that other people dealing with the condition or their loved ones are "supportive and upbeat." He said: "The strength and the positivity is continually astounding, and it is a really tight-knit, beautiful community."

Daniel, who is an ambassador for the MND Association, is fronting the Omaze Million Pound house draw, with the funds going directly to the MND Association. "This is amazing," he said of the partnership, adding further: "It's fantastic. Hopefully, it should raise millions for the research, nurse network, which is going to be helping towards pioneering treatments and I genuinely, I'm ever hopeful that in my lifetime, I will see a cure for this disease because it is one of the cruellest diseases I think I've ever witnessed anybody go through."

He praised Dame Pamela Shaw, the UK's leading neurologist for MND, saying: "She's incredibly positive about the future. They are making steps in terms of treatment, which could potentially slow it down. We now have Tofersen, a drug, there are different types of MND, but if you have the SOD1 gene, which is the familial type of MND, Tofersen is a type of drug that will slow it down. I know several people on Tofersens, and the quality of life is so much better, and the disease has rapidly slowed down in its progression. So it's very encouraging."

But while Dan has appeared in shows such as Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, Casualty, The Bill and obviously Coronation Street, he admits it's his love of acting which draws him to a role. "I've also done a huge number of movies, a huge amount of theatre, and spent years with the Royal Shakespeare Company," he said.

He went on to add: "It's whatever excites you. I love acting, I love my job, and I've been doing this since 1994. So when I pick up a script and I get that little flutter of excitement. It's always fun to embody somebody else. For me, it's getting that little buzz of excitement imagining yourself becoming that person. It's the detail for me, I enjoy playing characters and trying to find the truth in whatever story they're telling."

Although Daniel has proudly spoken about his sexuality and often shares an insight into his relationship with his boyfriend Jordan, he was once advised by a former manager not to come out as gay. Daniel was told that being open about being gay would affect his work, which he later discovered was correct.

Nowadays, though, he believes that attitudes have massively changed. "It's cool now," he said of being open about sexuality. "I think I'd have done it back then, it would not have been very cool," he said of coming out. He commented: "Now, it's sort of celebrated. So yes, attitudes, definitely have changed dramatically in the 30-odd years that I've been doing this for a living.

"That's across the board, legally things have changed, and the attitude of the general public has changed. Yes, absolutely, it's a very different world from the one I knew when I was young and freshly coming out."

MND Association Ambassador Daniel Brocklebank is supporting the latest Omaze Million Pound House Draw, Sussex in aid of the charity. Draw entries are available now at https://omaze.co.uk/pages/enter-sussex. The Draw closes at midnight Sunday June 29th.

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