Christopher Coghill, the actor portraying Kev Barton in ITV's Emmerdale, has revealed he was once hit over the head with a handbag by a fan in Selfridges, who was horrified by his on-screen behaviour.
Fan Encounters and Typecasting
Coghill describes his character as "a sympathetic psychopath, if you will" and remains unfazed about being typecast as a villain, following his role as paedophile Tony King in EastEnders in 2008.
He said: "You've got to give people a bit of credit. When I started in EastEnders, there were people who were like, 'You know, there are people out there who really can't tell the difference between what they see on telly and real life, and because of the character you're playing, you're going to get a lot of shit, and you might need police protection'.
"And then you go out, and people go, 'Oh, you're brilliant in EastEnders', and that was kind of it. I did get hit over the head with a handbag in Selfridges, but apart from that.."
Colleague's Similar Experience
His Emmerdale co-star William Ash, who plays Caleb Miligan, has had similar reactions: "People are genuinely generally really nice. You don't get any grief, really. I did have one woman at the petrol station going 'oh, you're right horrible to Moira'."
The duo previously shared the screen in the 2003 drama Burn It and portrayed brothers in both the 2006 one-off comedy Magnolia and a 2016 episode of Moving On. They are now involved in an Emmerdale storyline centred on an assault on Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle) at the depot.
Plot Details and Comments
Kev is responsible for the attack, and Caleb possesses CCTV footage of the incident but has been concealing it to pin the blame on his rival, Joe Tate (Ned Porteous). Coghill said of the footage: "I hold my hands up, it does look bad – I am bent over him with a crowbar and he's in a pool of blood."
Yet it might not be the leverage Caleb believes. Ash said: "I think [Caleb and wife Ruby, played by Beth Cordingly] just don't know how to handle him, like most people in the village. It's like he's such a loose cannon. You just don't know what you're going to get from him."
No More Singing
Coghill insists he wants no further singing scenes for his character, following his on-screen serenade to estranged husband Robert (Ryan Hawley) with If You're Not The One by Daniel Bedingfield, and his attempt to convey emotions to long-lost son Lewis (Bradley Riches) through Boyzone's Father And Son.
Coghill said: "Do you know what, [producer] Laura Shaw did say to me the other week, do you want to do All I Want For Christmas Is You? And I said, if you keep me till Christmas 2029, I'll do it then. That's how my contract negotiations are going. But no, it's excruciating. Horrible.
"If I could sing, I wouldn't be an actor. If I could sing, I would have been in a band in the 1990s."
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and STV, and is available to stream from 7am on ITVX, STV Player and YouTube.
