Monday night’s broadcast of Coronation Street culminated in Hayley Cropper played by actress Julie Hesmondhalgh carrying out her wish to die rather than suffer from pancreatic cancer. She took her own life with a cocktail of drugs while husband Roy was by her side, and ensured that he took no part..

When she first arrived on Coronation Street in January 1998, Hayley Anne Patterson was British TV’s first transgender character. At that stage she was a pre-operative transgender woman, seeking gender confirmation treatment and a relationship. Julie Hesmondhalgh told the Guardian: “I remember going to the Coronation Street audition in a leopardskin coat because I thought she was going to be another Bet Lynch.” She added: “When I got to the office, everybody was laughing. The idea was that Roy was going on a series of disastrous dates and I would be the third, a pre-op transsexual. But I didn’t laugh. I thought: ‘This isn’t a joke, Hayley won’t be a funny character.’”

Over the years Hesmondhalgh has worked with Trans Media Watch and Press for Change in a bid to raise awareness of trans issues. Hesmondhalgh’s portrayal – including her trip to get gender-reassignment surgery, and her frustration that she had insufficient legal status as a transgender person and so initially couldn’t marry Roy – also helped catalyse a national debate that led to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, a law that granted transgender people full legal status. Julie has been credited with helping to change attitudes for her role.