Will and his ex-wife had an unhappy reunion this week.
Emmerdale spoilers follow.
Emmerdale star Dean Andrews has addressed the future of new character Rose.
This past week has seen Dean’s character Will reunited with his ex-wife Rose for the first time since she walked out on their family when Dawn was a child.
Dawn rejected her mother when they came face-to-face in Friday’s episode, but viewers have not seen the last of this newcomer.
Speaking to Digital Spy and other media about this dramatic storyline, Dean Andrews explained why Will isn’t happy to have his former partner suddenly back in his life.
“He doesn’t react greatly to it,” the actor admitted. “In fact, I think he’s really peed off. She’s not shown her face for about 25 years, maybe a little bit less. So yeah he’s not happy about it and he can’t understand why she’s just turned up out of the blue.”
Dean then teased: “I feel like I’ve had to create a kind of backstory that I was older than her, we got married quite quickly and had Dawn. And she realised she was too young to be in that kind of relationship, did a runner and left me holding the baby. He definitely loved her.”
Next week’s episodes will see Will’s wife Kim’s attempt to bribe Rose backfire, as Rose tells everyone about the money offer during a boozy session at the Woolpack.
“I don’t think at that moment there are any mixed feelings,” Dean said. “He thinks that she doesn’t deserve anything other than getting her bum on the next plane back to Benidorm because she doesn’t deserve any money or any niceness.”
Dean admitted he still isn’t sure of Rose’s motivation for trying to reconnect with her daughter.
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I’m not one of the actors who goes up to find a storyliner to find out what’s happening, ‘can I have scripts and what’s the arc?’ and all that. Just what’s on the page that day, so I honestly don’t know why she’s turned up or who she’s come to see. I just get it as it unfolds on set.”
As for where Will stands with Kim after her bribery attempt, Dean hinted there could be some tension rising in Will’s marriage.
“It starts off that Will is just kinda going, ‘there’s nothing to worry about, she’s my ex wife and she’ll be gone soon, don’t worry about it’,” he said.
“And it gets to the paying off and it’s, ‘what the hell do you think you’re doing interfering?’ And then there’s one or two moments where Kim might say to Will that she’s messing up… She looks after the kids at one point and I say, ‘Well she did step up yesterday’. There are little moments that don’t mean anything to Will but they mean something to Kim and she starts to worry she’s going to lose me. She’s not made of wood, is she?”
Addressing the changing dynamic in the Taylor family, he said: “We’re a lovely little gang, Claire, Olivia and Jay. But obviously it’s nice when someone else comes in to create more drama or different dynamics, and get someone else on set with their energy. We’ve been on set together with our little gang for three or four years now so we know each other, we love each other, we have a great time, it’s brilliant.
“But Christine [who plays Rose], I worked with her the first time 21 years ago and she’s not really changed. It was called Faith. A film about the miners’ strike in Yorkshire. And I’ve watched her career along the way so I know she’s a cracking actor, and I knew she’d fit in because she’s dead down to earth, as we all are. And she’s just good. So we were looking forward to her coming in and infiltrating the little gang and adding some more layers to the story.”
Rose’s arrival coincides with Dawn and Billy receiving some heartbreaking news that their young son Evan has leukaemia.
“I think that [Dawn and Rose’s reconciliation] kind of transpires as time goes on,” Dean said. “More maybe on what Dawn says about it all. Will goes down the road of ‘you don’t want anything to do with this person’ and she says ‘maybe I do?’ and Will starts to take that into consideration. Maybe that she might want to find out more about her.”
Dean revealed that Will doesn’t react well to learning that his grandson is facing a life-threatening illness.
He explained: “It’s really difficult because I’ve got grandkids and then you start to relate, obviously actors relate it to your own and you see your daughter going through and your son-in-law going through, and just the heartache of… I’ve done a lot of charity work for that kind of thing and you start to see the kiddies and it’s heartbreaking.”
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
