IS IT JAIL FOR JIMMY?

Emmerdale’s Nick Miles tells why a quick kiss with Mandy could wreck his character’s chances of walking free...

As Jimmy’s trial verdict approaches in Emmerdale this week, the nervous defendant will seek solace in Mandy rather than his wife Nicola before resigning himself to a spell behind bars.

Jimmy and Mandy have grown close in the run-up to the trial, and the pair will kiss for the first time after she helps him prepare his defence speech, sending Jimmy’s head into a spin. When he then gives a flustered testimony, he begins to prepare himself for prison. ‘Jimmy believes he has a slim-to-no chance of getting off and has more or less given up,’ says Nick Miles, who plays him. ‘He can’t see a way forward.’

Jimmy’s in court on charges of death by dangerous driving after accidentally crashing his lorry into the wedding barn, which led to an explosion that killed evil groom Paul. Since then he’s struck up a close friendship with the dead man’s fiancée, Mandy, even taking her advice to plead not guilty.

After Jimmy’s first day in court Nicola tells him it went well, but he’s shaken. ‘Jimmy’s terrified, and thinks the jury hates him,’ says Nick. The next day Mandy reads Jimmy the speech she’s prepared for him. ‘It’s relentlessly positive about what a great family man he is; not the kind of things Nicola would ever say.’

Overcome with gratitude, Jimmy clumsily leans in for a kiss. Mandy reciprocates before they spring apart, leaving Jimmy mortified. ‘Jimmy feels guilty,’ explains Nick. ‘He might have feelings for Mandy but at this point he’d have feelings for anyone who shows him any kindness.’

After Jimmy fluffs his testimony, Nicola tries to make him see that he came across as an honest man, not a practised liar — but her pep talk backfires. ‘It makes him angry and sends him into a fury,’ says Nick. ‘He needs support not direction.’

Racked with guilt over his illicit kiss, Jimmy’s in turmoil as he rejects Nicola’s positivity and starts to pack for prison, leaving his future with Nicola in the balance. ‘How often can she take him back? Will she still want him after everything?’ says Nick.

Nick, 58, says, ‘It never feels like a job for life. It feels like I’m earning my place every time I do a scene. But it’s a privilege. Emmerdale did me a huge favour by saving me from being typecast, as all I ever played before were coppers and thugs. I love it.’