Next week's episodes see Andy attend Katie's funeral despite initially
threatening not to go, but by this point he has already made the
devastating and unnecessary decision to end his own life.
Once
the service and burial are over, Andy drives off to the local steep
quarry and parks dangerously near to the precipice, failing to see that
he still has so much left to live for.
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| Andy contemplates suicide |
Kelvin Fletcher,
who plays Andy, commented: "Andy decides that he can't carry on without
Katie. He feels that he has nothing to live for and the reason that
he'll go to the funeral is because it's his last chance to say goodbye
and he'll actually be joining Katie that day because he'll be ending his
own life. It's a tragic thought to have and it's completely irrational, but for Andy in that moment, it does seem like the only way."
Show bosses aren't revealing exactly how the storyline plays out, but
Robert and his on-off lover Aaron Livesy will desperately try to track Andy down when they spot him driving out
of the village and realise that something isn't right.
Emmerdale's
team have taken steps to explore the difficult subject matter
sensitively. The show's researchers were involved in the planning of the
storyline and Fletcher also did his own personal research for the
scenes.
In order to safely portray the issue, the message behind
the storyline will be not to suffer in silence when experiencing any
type of distress.
Fletcher added: "I wanted to do the storyline
justice. It's been very heavy, but hopefully I'll have done a good job
with quite a tough subject. Hopefully there'll be people watching it who
can relate somewhat to what they're seeing on screen. It'd be good if
they could then see that there are people out there who can help at a
time of need and it's best to try speaking up about any problems you're
having."
Airs Thursday, February 19th
