£2.8m buys tallest peak
Star’s moving tribute to dementia plotline
ONE of Britain’s highest beauty spots has been sold for around £2.8million.
The 1,378ft tor Brown Willy on Bodmin Moor is one of twin peaks that are the tallest in Cornwall.
It is part of a 1,221-acre site that includes a fivebedroom farmhouse and the owner gets shooting rights for wildlife including snipe, woodcock and deer.
Estate agents said it was “an iconic Cornish landmark and full of wildlife”.
The buyer has not been disclosed but the public will still have access to the tor. SCENES Soap’s Laurel and Ashley, inset, and actress Charlotte, below
EMMERDALE star Charlotte Bellamy today reveals her genuine heartbreak over her soap husband’s dementia storyline and final farewell.
Fans last night saw vicar Ashley Thomas speak to wife Laurel from beyond the grave. The beloved character, who died last week, appeared in a home video in Laurel’s dreams. And actress Charlotte said it was a “beautiful” ending to the emotional plot. She said: “It is really Ashley’s way of saying goodbye. It’s important to have this scene. It was really nice for the audience to see Ashley as Ashley again, to finish off this whole story of dementia. “I imagine people who have endured or had to deal with a relative all these years they’ve lost them, they never got to say goodbye. “They have had this person who doesn’t remember anything or maybe doesn’t know who they are and they have had to look after them for five, 10 years.
“And then they die, never even knowing who that person was who looked after them or their husband or their wife. I imagine those people, all they wanted was to say goodbye to that person when they knew who they were.
“And, cleverly, that’s what Emmerdale have done – given that moment of Ashley saying the things that maybe other people would want to say to that person.
“It is beautiful, it is absolutely heartbreaking, but it is joyous.”
Ashley, played by John Middleton for 20 years, had a twoyear battle with dementia that left him unable to recognise his own wife and children.
Ashley’s funeral took place on the soap last night, but it was not to be the character’s final farewell.
Laurel returned from the service alone and watched old home videos of her husband playing with their children. When she fell asleep, Ashley appeared in her dreams as the man she knew before dementia took hold and told Laurel everything she had wanted to hear from him.
Through the TV screen, he recalled touching moments including Laurel arriving in the village dressed as a bumblebee, the birth of their children and the death of their son.
His words gave Laurel the courage to face the future without Ashley.
Charlotte, who filmed the 22-page script with John in one take, hopes the episode will provide hope to families affected by dementia.
She said: “As she wakes up she is watching the home video of her family life. The end image and message is that her heart swells because of what she had, not what she doesn’t have any more.
“I think that is a gorgeous way of ending a story like this – that we have to look at the positives. Life was beautiful with him and she celebrates that. She is not going to be in mourning now for the next six months.
“That is a great message to give to people out there; remember what you had together, not what you did not have in the last few months or years.”
Emmerdale’s handling of Ashley’s dementia storyline has received huge praise from both the families of patients who have suffered with the condition and from dementia charities.
An episode of the soap which showed the world through Ashley’s eyes, broadcast last year, is now being used by the Alzheimer’s Society as a training video.
It’s a gorgeous way of ending a story like this – that we have to look at the positives
CHARLOTTE BELLAMY ON MESSAGE IN LAUREL’S DREAM