Do you recognise Emmerdale’s new Barton?
Ex-Coronation Street actor Bill Ward, who played womanising builder Charlie Stubbs in the Street, is joining rival soap Emmerdale as the late John Barton’s estranged brother, James.
Widow Moira Barton is taken aback by James’s surprise visit, because there was bad blood between the brothers which hadn’t been resolved before John’s untimely death in a spectacular accident last year, when his car fell into a ravine. So what does James want now?
James is a farmer like John, and a single father to three grown-up sons. And it seems he’ll soon find reason to stick around in the village.
"The Barton family have always been extremely popular with our audience and the arrival of James will be the start of a new era for them," says an Emmerdale spokesperson.
Bill, who’ll appear on Emmerdale in October, says: "The Emmerdale team are a very talented bunch indeed and I’m extremely chuffed to have been asked to join them."
Bill spent four years in Coronation Street as Charlie from 2003 to 2007, during which time the cheeky charmer gradually revealed himself as a cruel bully in his abusive relationship with Rovers landlady, Shelley Unwin, played by Sally Lindsay. Charlie eventually got his comeuppance when he was killed by Tracy Barlow.
