“Joe loves Debbie… even more than he loves himself!”
ROSS HAS A GUN, BUT JOE IS ARMED WITH THE TRUTH – AND NED PORTEOUS RECKONS HIS ALTER EGO WILL KEEP DEBBIE’S SECRET…
It’s hard to believe that bitter and twisted Joe Tate is capable of real love. But in recent weeks, we’ve seen him shrug off his nasty persona to reveal a softer side to little brother Noah and partner Debbie. It seems Joe has left himself open to love, and that’s changing him for the better.
However, Debbie has a dark secret that could threaten to destroy their happiness forever, and Joe has been protecting it by paying off acid attacker Simon to get rid of the evidence. And as things get serious this week with Ross on his tail (see p16), Joe is in big trouble. But his real-life alter ego Ned Porteous is enjoying his character’s latest misadventures…
“Being in a scene doing Russian roulette with Michael Parr [Ross] is definitely fun,” grins the star. “Any scene with a high dramatic intensity is great, especially if you are working with an actor like Mike, who is just wicked at these types of things. We spent the whole day filming the scenes at Home Farm with a team of armourers and stunt coordinators. Fortunately, the whole team are super-professional, so they don’t let you get into a state where you might feel uncomfortable – they make sure you know that nothing can go wrong!”
Of course, things are about to go very wrong for Joe now that Ross is gunning for him. But how far will the Home Farm head honcho go to protect Debbie? We know someone is shot – but would Joe take a bullet for the object of his affections?
“When you love someone, I like to think you do everything you can to keep them out of harm’s way – even when a gun is pointed at you!” muses Ned. “I don’t think he will reveal Debbie is behind the acid attack. Joe actually loves Debbie more than he loves himself !”
While Ned and Mike are good pals off screen, there’s no love lost between
Joe and Ross – who are both infatuated with the same woman. And despite his character being the man Debbie is currently with, Ned reckons that
Joe feels insecure about her past.
“I think his jealousy is rooted in the fact that he knows Debbie and Ross have a much deeper and richer history than he has with her,” explains the actor. “You can’t match that, and there is going to be a little bit of jealousy that he doesn’t know her as well. Joe has always viewed Debbie as this force to be reckoned with – I believe she is the first woman he’s ever met who’s truly challenged him.”
It will be interesting to see what this shock shooting will mean for the love triangle going forward. For Ned, it’s building up to be an exciting time.
“It’s cool having a twist, and of course leaving it on such a cliffedge of a scene – it should hopefully get a really good reaction,” he grins. “Joe is on Debbie’s side – she rescued him from the quarry so he’d rescue her back, no question. If there’s an Emmerdale without Debbie
Dingle in it, I think Joe would struggle to find reasons to stick around.”