He may have only returned to the Emmerdale village in December, but already Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) has caused more trouble than half of the village combined.

Since his unexpected arrival on Christmas Eve, Joe has spiked his own brother, stolen a kidney from his uncle and embarked on an affair with a married woman.

Not to mention, his actions unintentionally led to the death of three villagers when their limo crashed into an icy lake.

However, the drama surrounding Joe is far from over, as actor Ned Porteous told me at the British Soap Awards this weekend.

‘There’s always more to come. It really doesn’t stop,’ he teased.

‘I don’t know how they do it at the Emmerdale story creation team. There’s never a dull moment. It doesn’t matter which character you’re following in the show, there’s always something that takes the biscuit and ends up making you go, “How are they going to get through that?”

‘And that’s a really fun thing for us actors to do because you have this endlessly long story arc and you don’t know what’s going to happen in your story and with your character. With so many people on the show all the time it’s like a hotpot of weird things going on, which is great.’

While Joe might not be the most popular man in the village – with countless locals having been in the frame after he was pushed out of a window last month – it’s all smiles and friendship off-screen, according to Ned.

‘I really, really enjoy it,’ he enthused. ‘Hands down the friendliest place I’ve ever worked. The people are nice, it’s fun work, creatively.

‘It’s kind of an actor’s dream these days to know what you’re doing in about a month’s time, which is quite a bizarre thing.