Jittery John has a lot on his mind, including covering up an accidental murder, poisoning the village water supply and being responsible for putting his ex-lover in a coma – Oliver Farnworth isn’t surprised his alter ego is having sleepless nights.
Viewers get a peek into that mercurial mind in a series of stylised dream sequences playing out across the week. Each episode begins with a different nightmare showing how the wedding could go wrong, relating to John’s various misdemeanours.
Everyone thinks Nate did a runner to Scotland, so there’s bound to be questions when the corpse is inevitably fished out of the water.
“The discovery of Nate’s body is absolutely terrifying,” continues Farnworth. “Obviously there would have to be a criminal investigation, the consequences of which would be huge. John would be disowned by everyone, go to prison, or get in his van and have to move on somewhere else. He could lose everything.”
“We’re getting fragments of what really happened to Aidan, who was the love of his life at one point. Now he’s woken up, what will he reveal about John’s past? We know John has visited Aidan while he’s been comatose and confided in him about the things he’s done – what has Aidan retained? Hearing Aidan is awake is the last thing he needs, so what will he do about that?
The root of John’s issues are his complicated saviour complex, an obsessive desire to be seen as a hero to the point where he deliberately hurts people just so he can experience the glory of saving them. This has led to some unfortunate incidents, including the aforementioned Nate, who paramedic John treated for injuries sustained in a fight, only for the patient to unexpectedly die from a reaction the medication.
“John wants love and acceptance, the downside is he keeps engineering situations to gain that for himself, but at the expense of other people’s safety. He needs to be needed.”
“John can adapt to situations, he puts on a strong persona to get his own way and maintain control. Now he’s built this ego for himself he’d never want to display that vulnerability to his loved ones because it equals weakness. What if they disown him? It’s too late to be honest.”
“He was probably a quiet, sensitive child who felt disowned and abandoned by his father. He joined the army and didn’t feel lonely any more, being surrounded by comrades and vibing off that testosterone-fuelled environment. More than anything the army gave John acceptance into a family.
Fans didn’t know what to make of John’s inscrutable nature early on, and Farnworth was drip-fed details of the long-term arc which has unfolded as a slow-burn saga with increasingly high stakes – although filming footage for a future flashback indicated to the actor what was in store.
“I’d only been there a few weeks but this was a big pointer of a darker side emerging for John. The writers have really invested in the storyline and woven John into the fabric of the village, which I’m really grateful for. You’ve got to build up to a pay-off.
“It’s like creating a painting: you start with a base coat, add certain layers then change a little bit. That’s the nature of the character and how he adapts to his surroundings.”
He was already a familiar face to soap fans, thanks to his Coronation Stint as doomed Andy Carver. After being seemingly killed off by evil Pat Phelan in 2017, Andy was revealed to be alive several months later in one of Corrie’s most notorious twists of recent years.
“The technical side of Corrie and Emmerdale is very similar, it’s great to have that background. You understand how it all works so you can hit the ground running. I love the intensity, every day you’re stretched, filming in three different locations, getting through pages of dialogue – it’s a mental workout. You’re scrambled but you sleep really well!”
“I actually left drama school a month early to do Hollyoaks,” he reveals. “I’d started auditions and was thrown into working in front of a camera for real. That was a learning curve. I was grateful to learn on the job, I was there for about eight months and had a great time. Will was a dodgy character with an air of mystery, I must have one of those faces!”
“There’s been so many different people with their own styles,” he ponders. “The likes of Amanda Abbington in Mr Selfridge, and Suranne Jones who I worked with on stage… I always look up to mature actors with a lot of experience.
Back to Farnworth’s current role, and the uncertain future John faces beyond this big week. It’s not known whether his and Aaron’s wedding goes ahead, or if any connection is made between John and the body about to be discovered floating in the water.
“Quite a lot of stress is probably all I can say!” grins Farnworth. “It’s possible things aren’t quite over. John will have to put out some fires. And we might get more angst in his van!”
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Emmerdale airs Mondays to Fridays at 7:30pm on ITV1. Stream on ITVX.
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