Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle)
Emmerdale star Sandra Marvin has revealed what's next for her character Jessie Grant following the arrival of her troublesome son Billy Fletcher.
Jay Kontzle has been cast in the role of Billy, a new regular for Emmerdale who made his first appearance in the hour-long Christmas Day special.
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Billy has been mentioned on numerous occasions over the past few months and is newly-released from jail, where he was serving a sentence for GBH.
Billy's first scenes saw him unexpectedly interrupt Jessie and Marlon's wedding party, much to the concern of his brother Ellis.
Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) was also outraged to see Billy, recognising him as one of the thugs who made his life a misery when he was in jail.
Speaking about what happens next, Sandra told us: "Billy's arrival causes a whole heap of trouble for various reasons. There are even more things than I realised at the time as well.
"Billy turning up causes problems with Ellis and with other people in the village as well. In terms of the family unit, Tall Trees is a small house and there’s a lot of them in there. Ellis and Billy have got a lot to get over.
"The thing with Billy, though, is that he made a bad mistake which set him on a path for his life."
Asked whether Billy genuinely sees it as a mistake, Sandra replied: "You’ll have to watch and see, but Jessie believes that. I’ve had quite a bit of feedback, with people asking: 'What's she doing?'
"But as a mother, she doesn’t see that side of him. She’s a headmistress so she’s a bright woman, but she just doesn’t see that. When he tells her his side of the story, she believes him. As a mother, she has to. But if she sees the signs then she’s obviously going to have to buck up her ideas."
When we asked Sandra whether she always knew her on-screen family were joining Emmerdale, she replied: "I didn't at all. I knew for sure about six months in. Then I knew Ellis was coming in, but I didn’t know whether Billy was going to come in.
"But it has created a different dynamic. It's that family unit of Marlon, Jessie, little April and the two boys.
"April and Ellis have got such a wicked relationship and it’s so funny because off-screen they are the same. They worked out a little handshake that takes about five minutes! It's put a different layer on that family dynamic."
Digital Spy