“I almost snuck into Finn’s coffin!”
Joe Gill talks about his exit…
Finn’s shock death has hit the Bartons hard – but for Joe Gill, who played Emma’s youngest boy for nearly four years, it’s the end of an exciting era…
“I’ve loved playing Finn,” beams the actor. “But it was the right time for me to move on. I spoke to Iain in February about leaving, and my contract ended in October, so everything fitted in perfectly.
“I’m really proud that Finn has made his exit so dramatically, and the fact that he’s dead draws a proper line.
The slate is wiped clean and is a lot more final than if he’d just nipped off somewhere!”
There were things
Joe needed to do before going, though – and a last-minute return to the set provided an unusual opportunity.
“I hadn’t taken my family to the Emmerdale studios yet,” admits the star. “On the day I did, I was told I couldn’t go into the Barton house – but I went in there, and was faced with Finn’s coffin! One of the team had called me the week before to ask for my height – so there I was looking at a 5ft 10in coffin. It was surreal.
“Apparently Michael Parr [Ross] was due to film a scene next to it later that day, so part of me thought, ‘Should I jump into the coffin and leap out in the middle of the take?’. It’s bizarre that Finn will soon have a headstone in the graveyard!”