Former Emmerdale star Bill Ward, who left the show in October in explosive fashion, has said he doesn't know where the James/Emma storyline will go as it was still being mapped out after his exit.
Ward's character, James Barton, was famously killed by his wife Emma, played by Gillian Kearney, in one of the most ambitious stunts in the show's history late last year and he revealed to RTÉ Entertainment that nobody was "quite sure" at the time of filming where that storyline was going to go next.
"I've just heard a few things about what's going on on the telly at the moment and no, I don't know what's happening and the actors are often the last to know on Emmerdale what's going to happen," Ward said.
"Certainly when I left, which was October, I'm pretty sure then they weren't quite sure how it was going to play-out because that October, the explosive ending, it was the end of a year's worth of story lining and they were just starting to think of what was going to happen the next year.
"But we'll see what happens because somebody's got a secret and the way with secrets is that generally they come out at some point..."
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Speaking about the scenes themselves, and exiting the soap in such dramatic fashion, Ward said it was "everything you want to be involved in" as an actor.
"It's groundbreaking because they essentially tried to shoot a film style plot with film style cameras - that's what they used - and film style stunt sequences, which were the real deal," he recalled.
"There were lots of stunt drivers and stuntmen driving cars at 50/60mph into other cars and it was pretty extraordinary to watch; I'd never been part of something like that."
"And for a soap to attempt to do that on a soap schedule where you're shooting up to 40 pages a day, is a really big ask and I thought it was extraordinarily brave and I thought they absolutely pulled it off and I was delighted to be part of it and proud to be part of it," Ward said.
Ward previously played Charlie Stubbs on Coronation Street, a character who also met his maker at the hands of a love interest.
When asked if he would give love another shot on EastEnders he laughed: "They both had quite volatile relationships . . . It's not going to end well if I do, is it?"
Ward was in Dublin promoting his upcoming theatre performance in Not Dead Enough, in which he will star alongside Laura Whitmore at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre from April 18 to 20.
Speaking about the difference between theatre and television, the actor said: "It's just, every night is different really, and I love the rehearsal process of it, I love sort of, having a go at something lots of different ways so you get the chance to explore a play or piece of theatre or character or whatever, rehearsing is part of the joy for me."
