Joe Tate is at the centre of a dramatic Emmerdale storyline, with his fiancée Dawn Fletcher planning to leave him at the altar and run away with her ex-husband Billy. Actor Ned Porteous has teased what lies ahead for the character, promising “drama, surprise, love, pain — a little bit of everything.”
Joe Tate's turbulent history in the Dales
Joe first appeared in the Dales in 1995 and left in 2004 with his aunt Zoe following the death of his dad. He returned 13 years later seeking revenge for his father's death, a plot that ended with Joe faking his own death. In 2026, Joe is back and set to marry his pregnant fiancée Dawn.
Unbeknownst to Joe, Dawn (Olivia Bromley) plans to leave him at the altar to flee with her ex-husband Billy (Jay Kontzle). Dawn believes Joe is responsible for Billy being attacked and left for dead. Although Joe didn't actually do it, his past actions — including stealing a kidney, causing multiple deaths, framing someone for human trafficking, drugging his own brother, and plotting the death of his step-grandmother — make Dawn's suspicion understandable.
Porteous defends Joe as misunderstood
Over the past year, Joe's character has softened with his engagement to Dawn, and the couple are expecting their first child. However, Dawn shared a kiss with Billy, and since then things have spiralled. Actor Ned Porteous believes Joe is somewhat misunderstood.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Star, Porteous said: “I don’t think anyone wants to be a bad person he just hasn’t had enough practice with being a good person and he’s only ever seen evidence of being mean working.”
Joe was orphaned as a child after his mum died and his dad took his own life. His relationship with Graham Foster, the one person he saw as a father figure, was also fraught; Graham was killed off but 'returned from the dead' in this year's soap crossover epic, Corriedale.
What's next for Joe?
Porteous sees a sympathetic side to Joe: “He’s only ever been let down by the people in his life that he cares the most for. He’s only ever seen money be able to buy everything, and the one final thing that you can’t acquire through money is love, companionship, and that’s his greatest insecurity — the one thing that he needs more than anything, he has no real control over.”
After everything comes crashing down, Joe is likely to seek revenge, but Porteous remains tight-lipped on specifics. He teased: “Drama, surprise, love, pain — a little bit of everything. A full spectrum of human emotion.”
