Emmerdale actor Chris Coghill has revealed that his character Kev Townsend was originally supposed to die, but the storyline was changed after his portrayal of the role. Speaking to the Mirror, Coghill explained that the initial plan was for Kev to be a manipulative villain who dies, but the actor refused to take the part under those terms.
Original plan was for Kev to die
Coghill said: "When I was originally coming into it, the first time round, they were like, 'Yeah, Kev's this horrible manipulator who's forced Robert to marry him in prison. He's coming out and he's going to die'. And I went, 'I'm not going to do it if he dies,' and they said, 'All right, he doesn't die. He pretends he's going to die!'"
Fans of the ITV soap have grown to love Kev as a comedic villain, but the character was initially meant to be very different. When Kev first joined the show last year, he claimed to his then-husband Robert Sugden that he was dying from a heart condition, which later turned out to be a lie.
Character became funnier and more endearing
Coghill continued: "But as we did it, and to an extent, sort of the way that I was doing it, they went, 'Oh, we could write slightly different,' and it became a little bit funnier, and more endearing, and sort of like he had a bit more of a vulnerable side."
He added: "He can go from being a psycho to vulnerable, to quite slapstick and quite helpless, all in one scene, and then back to being scary again! Which is quite unusual to do."
Actor asked to return after first stint
After his first stint on the show, Coghill was asked to come back. He said: "After the first stint they said, 'This wasn't what we intended to happen,' and they asked me to come back. This time I've come back, there's been a lot more of the sympathetic psychopath, if you will."
Coghill is enjoying playing the complex character, saying: "I'm still switching every now and then, so it's nice. It's a bit like a playground, isn't it, that you can do everything all at once, and they give me freedom to change, mess about a bit in scenes and stuff. I'm just doing what I'm doing and I'm really liking it!"
Asked about public reaction to his character, Coghill confessed he's often asked about Kev's famous lemon drizzle cakes. Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
