Emmerdale's Ned Porteous teases Joe Tate's fate in whodunnit storyline

Emmerdale's Ned Porteous has made a sensational return as Joe Tate, stirring up chaos in the village since his reappearance last December after six years away.

The 30-year-old actor has quickly re-established Joe as a formidable presence, with his character now embroiled in a series of shocking storylines that have left viewers on the edge of their seats.

Joe's recent actions, including drugging brother Noah Dingle leading to a fatal limo crash, masterminding an attack on his uncle Caleb Miligan for his kidney, and having an affair with Dawn Fletcher in a huge betrayal to her husband Billy, have turned many against him.

Charity Dingle is seething after learning Joe drugged her son Noah, resulting in a tragic accident, while Kerry Wyatt is out for blood upon discovering Joe's role in her daughter Amy's demise.

The tension is set to explode during Lydia Dingle's birthday bash at Home Farm, where all eyes are on Joe, and the villagers are brimming with vengeance. With so many potential assailants, it's not a matter of if retaliation will occur, but rather who will act first.

Speaking to press, Joe Tate star Ned was asked whether if Joe was to survive the whodunnit, his fate at the moment is unknown, would he want revenge.

To which the actor admitted: "I'm sure, I'm sure he will, yeah. I'm sure there'll be some sort of vengeance, particularly.

"It's not the nicest thing to get, you know, pushed out of a window, so I'm sure he's a little bit miffed about that, but we'll see. I can't give you any spoilers!"

Meanwhile, Emmerdale boss, Laura Shaw, teased of the scenes: "Charismatic bad boy, Joe Tate, as soon as he arrived in the show he'd already got quite a few enemies straight away but what we'll see in the kind of run up is that he manages to recruit quite a few more enemies as well.

"And by the time we get to this episode, that list has grown and grown and grown. What you kind of see is we've got this lavish birthday party that's been arranged for Lydia."

She added: "We've got lots of people up here and there are a lot of daggers drawn and a lot of people looking at Joe Tate and want him dead".

Laura further teased: "I can tell you that one person definitely will be getting their revenge on Joe Tate. Will they succeed in their murderous act? We'll have to wait and see!"

Emmerdale continues every weeknight at 7:30pm on ITV and ITV X with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. Each episode is available to watch at 7am on ITV X also.