My Emmerdale son could be a real-life relative
Soap vicar’s surprise family discovery
Real life took a soap-like twist for Emmerdale’s new vicar Kevin Mathurin when it emerged the actor playing his son might really be a relative.
The 47-year-old says he and his new co-star Emile John, who plays his character’s son Ethan, have turned detective to trace their family roots.
After Kevin joined the soap at Christmas as vicar Charles, he and Emile realised they both have relatives with the same surname living in a tiny village on a Caribbean island.
Kevin says: “My parents are from St Lucia. Emile’s family on his father’s side are Mathurins as well and also from St Lucia and... they are from the same village, Soufriere.
“We are trying to get names of relatives we both might know and see if there is a connection. But my mum has seen pictures of Emile and she thinks he looks like a relative!”
Landing the new role of Emmerdale’s vicar couldn’t have come at a better time for Kevin, who admits 2020 was a particularly tough year.
Not only was the play he was in at London’s National theatre put on hold, he lost a relative to Covid in May as well as coming down with the virus himself, alongside his partner, Nikki.
He says: “I sadly lost my uncle, who was my mum’s older brother, to Covid. He was in his early 80s. “I also got ill from it too at the start in March, as did my partner.
“There was one time where I thought I might need to go to hospital with a shortness of breath but I thankfully didn’t in the end and we both took it in turns to look after each other. Luckily we got past it and we are getting on with our lives now but my partner still feels tired from time to time.”
With work ground to a halt across Britain’s theatres, Emmerdale’s new star – who has two children, Gracie, 12 and Harley, six
– admits it really did feel like Christmas had come early when the part of Charles cropped up.
He says: “I didn’t even tell my partner initially about the role. My mum is a big Emmerdale fan but I didn’t tell her until she came over to celebrate my son’s birthday later in September.
“I told her: ‘By the way, moving to Leeds’. She looked perplexed and so
I then told her I was getting a job as a vicar!
“She didn’t know how to take it! I then told her: ‘In a village – called Emmerdale.’ And then it clicked. She was so excited and when she watched my first scenes over Christmas, she rang me up... to tell me how proud she was.
“She now keeps trying to find out what will happen next but obviously I am not going to tell her!”
Rather than moving his entire family from his home in London to Leeds, where Emmerdale is filmed, Kevin decided he would commute for the job instead.
“I am a Londoner through and through,” he explains. “It works out as
When I hit my mid-30s I could not compete with young dancers
everyone gets their own thing.
“My partner is a DJ and producer and she had been touring with Kelis but she is able to do some things online for now and when I am home, I am able to help with schooling too.”
His new character gets stuck into a romantic plotline. After trying to befriend everyone in the village, Charles is stunned when he bumps into old flame Manpreet, played by Rebecca Sarker.
She was, explains Kevin, the love of Charles’s life and he was devastated to do when she left him at the altar on their wedding day some years ago.
Viewers will be on tenterhooks to find out whether they fall back in love.
Kevin says it has been a slow and gradual road to land such a big role on television.
After attending Sylvia Young’s theatre school when he was younger, he decided to go down the professional dance career path.
But he adds: “When I hit my mid-30s, I knew I could not compete with the younger dancers and their back flips! So I started to look into what I could do next. The only way of getting back into acting was to join an adult education course in London.
As well as West End theatre roles, Kevin has starred in TV’s Rillington Place and The One and Only Ivan.
Kevin says he has noticed some improvement in opportunities for black actors. But he adds: “There could be more. I remember the days in the 70s and you would watch TV and spot a black performer and go ‘Oh it’s a black person on TV’. It was a big thing. It’s great to see there are a lot more of us performing and doing really well but there is still more room for representation of every ethnicity.”
Away from Emmerdale, Kevin is happy spending time with Nikki and his two children in London.
“Lockdown last year brought us a lot closer together. The pandemic has prioritised and put things in check. It’s all about the family.”
Emmerdale runs every weekday at 7pm on ITV. An extra episode airs on Thursdays at 8pm.
KEVIN MATHURIN ON SWITCHING HIS CAREER