Coronation Street revealed Brody Michaelis’ (Ryan Mulvey) epilepsy in tonight’s gripping episode, after the youngster had a seizure outside the Rovers Return.
The reveal of this character’s medical condition comes after scriptwriters received support and information from Epilepsy Action on how to represent epilepsy and seizures as accurately as possible.
The episode saw Brody have a seizure round the corner from the famous Coronation Street pub while with Kit Green (Jacob Roberts), Sarah Platt (Tina O’Brien) and Bernie Winter (Jane Hazlegrove). Following the seizure, he reveals that he has had epilepsy for some time.
Rebekah Smith, chief executive at Epilepsy Action, said: “It has been a pleasure to work with the ITV team on this powerful storyline. It is so important that epilepsy is portrayed accurately and authentically on television, so when ITV reached out to us for expert guidance on the condition, we were more than happy to help.
“Our team has worked side by side with the researchers, scriptwriters and actors involved, and guided them on seizure portrayals, terminology, issues that people with epilepsy face and directed them to our website to signpost for support.
“This is just the beginning of our journey to ensure epilepsy is represented on-screen. We have many more goals for television and beyond that we hope to achieve, helping us to create a World Without Limits for people with epilepsy.”
Epilepsy on the cobbles
Brody was introduced into the soap as one of the teens in the secure training centre (STC) where Dylan Wilson (Liam McCheyne) is put away. He has recently been released and has joined his family living on the famous cobbles.
As well as living with epilepsy, Brody’s storyline sees him trying to cope with his father Mick Michaelis (Joe Layton) getting arrested for the murder of Craig Tinker (Colson Smith).
It was also recently revealed that Brody’s father may not be Mick, as he believes, but could actually be shady copper .
Epilepsy has previously featured on Coronation Street when David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd) was diagnosed with the condition, after having a ‘blackout’ and accidentally hitting someone with a car.
Epilepsy Action has been calling for more and better representation of life with epilepsy in film and television.
You can also have your say and help rewrite the script on epilepsy representation on TV, by filling out our survey.