Emmerdale bosses have shared a sneak preview of a special episode set to air next month.
Two months on from Paddy Kirk attempting to take his own life, the much-loved character is still slowly recovering and continuing to struggle with his mental health. He will soon leave the village to seek out some help.
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 finds himself needing to talk through his problems with people outside of his immediate circle.
READ MORE: Emmerdale's Mark Charnock wished well as he leaves UK
The episode airing on Thursday May 11 will see Paddy venture to a men’s help group away from his nearest and dearest.
Filming took place at Bradford City Football Club ground in the very room where regular Andy’s Man Club meetings are held. 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.
Producer Laura Shaw said: “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 said he was delighted to have Emmerdale on his home patch, he added: "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."
Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7.30pm on ITV and ITVX
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