Sue reveals own heartbreak over assisted dying
Star of C4 drama opens up about friend’s fate
SUE Johnston admits she talked about assisted dying with friends while watching a loved one pass away.
The 80-year-old is starring in drama Truelove about friends who make a drunken pact after reuniting at a wake.
Channel 4 says the friends pledge to “step in and engineer a dignified death” rather than let each other suffer in agony.
Sue was asked about the issue on BBC Breakfast yesterday, following Dame Esther Rantzen’s campaign for a parliamentary vote on relaxing the assisted dying law.
The star of The Royle Family and Brookside said: “Just before Christmas, a very dear friend of mine died and I was at his bedside... we talked about it.”
She added that it made her think whether she would like her family to be at her bedside if she were “just being kept alive by medicine”.
Sue said: “I cannot answer the question as to whether I would have the courage to do it, if someone asked me.”
SHAMING
More than 12,000 people have signed a petition in conjunction with campaigners Dignity In Dying and backed by Dame Esther, 83, who has stage four lung cancer.
Sue also spoke about the Post Office scandal and how it has been “rather shaming” that it took drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office to highlight the issue.
Since the airing of the four-part ITV series began on January 1, former Post Office chief executive Paula Vennells has announced she will hand back her CBE and the Government is set to bring in a plan to help wrongly convicted subpostmasters.
Johnston also said the performances, which included a cast of Toby Jones, Will Mellor, Monica Dolan and Julie Hesmondhalgh, were “fantastic”. She added: “I loved that it had a meaning and had a question.” Six-parter Truelove began on Channel 4 on January 3. Episodes 1-3 are available to
stream now.