Emmerdale spoilers follow.
Emmerdale star Ned Porteous has broken his silence on the soap’s big new Joe Tate whodunit – warning that his sly character will want revenge against whoever targets him this week.
The ITV soap airs an unmissable hour-long episode this Thursday (May 8) as storm clouds gather for Joe during a big party at Home Farm.
Several of the villagers gather at Kim Tate’s mansion to celebrate Lydia Dingle’s birthday.
It should be a fun occasion for all, but everyone soon gets distracted by their various vendettas against manipulative Joe. Show bosses have named nine characters who have motives for wanting him gone.
ITV
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Speaking about the storyline for the first time, Ned laughed: “Somebody’s always got it in for Joe – he doesn’t have the easiest life! But then he kind of asks for it, I suppose.
“I think there’s a more tactful way to go around doing what he has to do. He’s put in quite tricky positions and you have to find a reason for motivating your character for what he’s doing.
“In the recent kidney storyline, his motivation was to live. If he’d gone down the legal route of doing what he had to do, he could’ve died.
“So he felt like he was forced to put other people in jeopardy. He was happy to put his life before others.”
ITV
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On the dark scenes ahead for Joe this week, Ned continued: “This particular storyline, I didn’t know much about. It wasn’t part of the overriding arc when I came back to the show.
“There will be a similar hijink-type storyline around the corner that keeps it interesting and fresh. Or hopefully anyway!
“The party scenes at Home Farm were a fun day and handled very well. It could’ve been a stressful environment on set, but it was just lovely when you get to act with other people on the show. Especially when you’re up at Home Farm – you feel quite secular in your work environment.
“There’s a multitude of super talented people on the show, so it’s super fun for me to work with them every now and again. It’s a little bit daunting – all eyes on you!”
ITV
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If Joe survives this week’s episodes, Ned confirmed that he’ll undoubtedly want to seek revenge on the person who targets him.
Discussing the possibility, he teased: “I’m sure he will. There will be some sort of vengeance. It’s not a nice thing to be pushed out of a window, so I’m sure he’s quite miffed about that…
“We filmed all of this two months ago and during that time we’ve been trying to create the whole tree of new interesting storylines and possible whodunits.
“It’s always a game of ‘What do people know? What are we allowed to say?’ and I’m really bad with that. But when you’ve managed to piss off everyone in the village, it makes for a very interesting whodunit storyline!”
Noah, Kerry, Cain, Ruby, Caleb, Charity, Billy, Dawn and Clemmie have been named as the nine suspects in the frame for the crime.
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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