Coronation Street’s Harriet Bibby has revealed why Summer Spellman is left “gobsmacked” in new scenes. In Monday’s (26 January) episode, the character will be emotional after Kit Green returns her stolen backpack with Paul Foreman’s ashes still inside.

As she continues to mourn the loss of her legal guardian Billy Mayhew – who was tragically killed in the Corriedale crossover – Summer is relieved to be reunited with Paul’s ashes, whom she also considered a father figure.

“She’s just gobsmacked. It’s almost like, maybe Billy is up there, and he’s sending her a sign to say, ‘Look, I’m all right. I’m with Paul,'” Bibby explained.

“So, it’s not closure at all because this massive thing has happened, but there’s a little hint of, ‘I know they’re together.’ So, at first, she’s gobsmacked but quite touched by the fact and just pleased that they found his ashes, and in some way, it might mean that Billy and Paul are together again.”

While the retrieval of her backpack comes as a welcome surprise, Summer, who has been struggling with her grief, turns to alcohol afterwards. After helping herself to drinks at Dev Alahan’s shop, Roy Cropper eventually finds her drunk behind the counter.

“Roy acts exactly how you imagine Roy would react. He sees a hurt person in need and does what he feels is right in the moment to just get her to speak and calm her down,” Bibby noted.

“Summer’s not consciously living through this period of time. She’s just making decisions in the moment, and she’s not really aware of herself, because she’s just – one, in complete shock because no one knew that Billy was going to die, and two – just absolutely heartbroken, because her whole world has just been flipped on its head. So, she’s acting quite impulsively, and Roy does his best to try and put her feet back on the ground and comfort her.”

On Wednesday (28 January), Summer will find herself dealing with more heartbreak as she joins friends, family and parishioners at Billy’s funeral. Revealing what it was like to shoot the episode, Bibby said: “It was kind of bizarre, because Dan had only recently left. I can’t remember exactly, I don’t know if it was the same week or the week after, so it did feel very strange. And it was also really strange because it felt really recently that we’d filmed Paul’s funeral in the same church.

“It was like we’d been in that church for Paul and Billy’s wedding, and then we’d been in that church for Paul’s funeral, and now we were back here again for Billy’s funeral. So, it felt like there’s so many moments that have happened in that church, moments of joy and moments of grief and all of these different things. It was really emotional.”