Emmerdale's Paddy Kirk, played by Dominic Brunt, recently attempted to take his own life. Paddy is still on the slow steps of recovery and continues to struggle with his mental health, soon we’ll see him seek help away from the village.
As much as Paddy is grateful for the support of his 'Man Club' friends, his family and the wider village community who have all rallied round to help him, he has felt somewhat constrained about opening up and talking his problems through with his immediate friends.
It is for this reason that in the episode airing on ITV on Thursday, May, 11 we will see Paddy venture to a men’s help group away from his village. Filming took place at Bradford City Football Club ground in the very room where regular Andy’s Man Club meetings are held.
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This was the deliberate intention of the programme makers to use an authentic meeting point for Paddy’s visit to seek help. But using a real life venue did present challenges to the Emmerdale design team due to all the football sponsorship logos that were in place.
Commented producer Laura Shaw: “We've already seen Paddy speaking to his GP, being prescribed medication, going for counselling and talking to his friends and family, to help him with his struggling mental health.
"Our research showed that in addition to these things, many people find it easier to talk to strangers about their problems and so we wanted to show Paddy doing just that - opening up in a different environment and talking to strangers.
"It was vitally important to us that we portrayed these scenes authentically, hence the scenes were shot on location at a real Andy's Man Club venue and AMC carefully and brilliantly guided us through scripting and filming the scenes so they were as true to life as possible.
"We hope if anyone watching is feeling like Paddy, like they can't talk to friends or family, they might be encouraged by these scenes to reach out to their own local club for help and support.”
Nell Wain from Andy’s Man Club was delighted to have Emmerdale on his home patch. He said: “When Laura Shaw first asked me about doing this episode I jumped at the opportunity to let men see a bit of how AndysManClub runs and this will hopefully help us challenge the stigmas around men talking.
"In reality many men take the step to travel out of their area to attend clubs so they can really be themselves and talk freely with strangers and to see Paddy doing this is a real life snapshot of the thought process for many men. Bradford City FC, and in particular, Director of Operations, Paula Watson, have been fantastic in making this happen, not only for this Emmerdale episode, but in allowing us to use Valley Parade as a venue for AndysManClub in Bradford.
"They saw the need for this and even have a member of staff, Sian, who stays behind every Monday of her own accord to make sure the club opens for us! Another great partnership for us at AndysManClub. A huge Thank you to Emmerdale for their support in highlighting the struggles men go through but that, through talking, we all have hope of brighter days ahead.”
Emmerdale, 7.30PM, weeknights on ITV1.
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