Jai Sharma ( Chris Bisson )
Emmerdale businessman Jai Sharma must face the reality of his double life next week as Rachel Breckle goes into premature labour.
Jai is horrified when Rachel (Gemma Oaten) suddenly starts experiencing contractions and has to be rushed to hospital, but he knows that he can't get involved in the situation without wife Charity (Emma Atkins) discovering his secret.
Feeling helpless as his baby may not pull through, will Jai be able to cope with the mess he finds himself in?
Here, Chris Bisson - who plays Jai - reveals his take on next week's big episodes.
How is Jai feeling about Rachel's pregnancy at the moment?
"It's been very, very difficult and stressful trying to keep the truth about Rachel's pregnancy under wraps. Obviously Jai has put himself in an extremely difficult position and it's now starting to unravel for him."
What happens when Rachel goes into premature labour?
"Jai is very much under pressure throughout this whole period and he's facing the consequences of leading a double life. He's very worried about Rachel, but he's also very worried about his relationship with his wife Charity!
"It kicks off on the day of the auditions for the nativity play. Jai arrives to watch Noah and when he opens the door to the church, Rachel and Charity are in the middle of a blazing row about the play. At the end of that, Rachel starts to feel twinges and goes into labour very prematurely.
"Charity doesn't help matters because she says, 'This is so early that it's dangerous'. So Jai immediately starts panicking and it's very traumatic for him. Rachel breaks down, an ambulance comes and she gets taken away in it."
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Does Jai find a way to be there for Rachel?
"Well, obviously he can't go with her, so Ruby goes with her and Sam is left hanging around. Jai then thinks on his feet and says that he'll give Sam a lift, which means that he can get away from Charity and manage to get himself to the hospital.
"Because Jai and Sam explain that they're not relatives, the hospital refuses to give them any information. Obviously Jai can't blow his cover, so he can't get any information whatsoever from the hospital."
Is it difficult for Jai to hide his panic and not arouse suspicion?
"Jai manages to hide his panic quite well at first, but he finds it more difficult when he's at the hospital with Sam. Sam is trying to send Jai home because he doesn't really need to be there anymore, but Jai obviously doesn't want to go. At the same time, though, he doesn't want to hang around too much in case he makes people suspicious.
"The situation runs on for a few episodes, because Jai is constantly badgering people for information on Rachel and the baby. He calls Dan into the office at the factory and also tries to get hold of Ali. Basically, he wants to get hold of anyone who could give him some news. But Rishi keeps warning him that he's at risk of blowing his cover."
How does Jai react when he finds out that the baby has arrived?
"When he finds out, he has mixed emotions. He's elated that the baby has been delivered safely, but he knows that the situation is still critical and he's extremely frustrated that he can't be there.
"Later, there's a point where Rishi comes into the factory and reveals that Rachel's baby is a little boy. That's the first that Jai has heard of it. So all the way through it's second-hand information for him, because he can't be at the hospital and he can't see the baby."
Did you feel sorry for Jai when filming the scenes?
"Well, it's a very, very difficult position, because Rachel isn't answering her phone and Rishi is telling him to stay away. In some ways, you feel for him because he can't see his son and doesn't know whether the baby is going to survive or not.
"But on the other hand, it was always going to be this way. Jai has tried to play this game and keep it all a secret, so this is the price that he has to pay for that. He's been incredibly selfish because he wants to keep his marriage with Charity, but he also wants to keep the baby. Those two scenarios are really incompatible!"
Does there come a point where Charity realises that Jai is behaving strangely?
"Yes, Jai needs a cover story in the end, because he's absolutely going crazy and Charity knows that something is wrong. Charity thinks that he might be having an affair, so eventually Rishi has to intervene and tells her that Jai is still upset about her not wanting to have a baby.
"Charity can't take it anymore - she can't live with the pressure of Jai wanting a baby. She makes it clear that she's never, ever going to have a child for him. In some ways, this makes Jai realise why he wanted Rachel to keep his baby in the first place. If it was left to Charity, he'd never have a son. But obviously his behaviour is very deceitful."
Does Charity believe Rishi's cover story?
"I think she does believe the cover-up, because they've argued about this so many times before. In an ideal world, Jai wouldn't have ended up in a marriage without having discussed whether they were going to have a kid in the future. But it's a soap and that's not how things work out!
"In the end, it's one lie after another and each one compounds the last. Personally, I have no idea how Jai could possibly live through something like this! The pressure he's under is absolutely unbelievable and unbearable."
Jai finally gets a chance to meet his baby in the end, doesn't he?
"He does, as Rachel finally responds to him. But she says that this is the first and last time Jai is ever going to see baby Archie, which completely breaks his heart. The one thing that Jai wanted was a child, and now he's got one, he can't have it. He didn't see that one coming!"
What will happen next to Jai?
"He'll probably go on a downward spiral. Jai is absolutely at his wits' end. It's chaos and he's in absolute turmoil. He's being horrible to everybody because he can't see his son.
"Jai does think about coming clean. He tries and fails, and there's a few times where he's about to tell Charity. But for one reason or another, it doesn't happen!"
Emmerdale's Chris Bisson: 'There may be hell to pay for Jai'
Emmerdale fans can expect rows and romance for Jai Sharma this week as his ongoing storylines continue to heat up.
The ruthless businessman has more trouble in store for Rachel Breckle as he aims to win full custody of their son Archie, but is he playing with fire when he also reignites his affair with Leyla Harding?
Digital Spy recently caught up with Chris Bisson, who plays Jai, to hear his thoughts on his character's bad behaviour and whether he'll have to face the music.
How do you feel about Jai becoming more villainous again?
"I certainly find it more fun to play! I get some great lines now! (Laughs.) It can sometimes be hard to justify his actions because he does overstep the mark regularly, but it's certainly more interesting to play him like that.
"I think Jai has come to the end of his tether with this Archie situation now. He starts demonising Rachel in his own mind by catastrophising various events. That's his justification - he's come so far and now he's got the final push to finally get his son."
Rachel hasn't been an angel either recently. Whose side do you think the viewers will be on when they go head-to-head?
"I don't know actually, but I don't think they're going to be on Jai's side! There's only certain moments when you see any redeemable qualities in Jai. With the stuff I've been shooting now, those moments are quite thin on the ground, to be honest with you!
"I think Rachel possibly has some sympathy from people because she shows genuine regret and remorse when she does something wrong, whereas Jai is a lot more bullish and he's certainly very ego-centric. He's out for what he wants and he isn't taking any prisoners on the way."
Rachel is horrified when Jai threatens her with court.
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Jai and Rachel have more tension ahead
Why do tensions flare up between Jai and Rachel again this week?
"Archie suffers a broken arm when he's in Rachel's care. He's been in hospital and he's been patched up, but Jai knows nothing about it. He only finds out about it the following day when he hears it being discussed at the café. This infuriates him, because yet again he feels like he's been pushed out to the sidelines. As Archie's dad, he should have been told immediately, but there is some sort of conspiracy to keep the news from him.
"I think that starts to play on Jai's mind and that's the tipping point where he thinks, 'I can't trust Rachel and I certainly can't trust any of the people around her either, because none of them have bothered to tell me'. Lisa, Zak and Ruby are all implicated in that, because they know but don't tell him."
Some spoiler pictures for this week see the feud escalate further when Rachel causes an accident for Rishi. What happens there?
"You'll have to wait and see exactly what happens, but it's the beginning of Jai's strategy to undermine Rachel. It's to try to pull her close, wind her up and let her bring herself down. Jai understands that Rachel has got a temper and she's under a lot of pressure. He doesn't mind ramping up the pressure until it's unbearable.
"Jai wants everybody else - including the courts - to see that Rachel is unsuitable mother material and that Archie will have a better and more stable life living with him. Archie has already been on the run with Rachel, and now that her temper is causing problems, he's hoping that will play well for him in the custody battle."
Rishi doesn't approve of Jai's actions, though...
"I think Rishi is the only character who is purely looking in Archie's best interests. Jai and Rachel are polarised and they're in entrenched positions. I don't think either of them are going to back down.
"I don't think anyone doubts that Jai is probably a good dad, but with the way he goes about it, it's almost like he's prepared to destroy anybody else in order to make that happen."
Jai purposefully winds Rachel up and soon once again a fracas ensues
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Jai purposefully winds Rachel up
With Rachel leaving the show, will Jai have to watch out for her potentially disappearing with Archie again?
"I think that's probably at the forefront of his mind when he's trying to win custody of Archie! I don't think it would quite be in the same circumstances as last time when Rachel was actually on the run and not traceable, but she is certainly showing herself to be very unpredictable and that she needs some anger management!"
How does Jai and Leyla's affair start up again?
"They're both drawn to each other and it's never really gone away. It might have gone off-screen, but I don't think for the characters it's ever gone away. Leyla's family are all moving abroad so she's feeling lonely and vulnerable.
"Jai is also feeling pretty desperate. He's fallen out with his dad, things with Megan are so-so and he's really upset about the Archie situation. They're both prepared to wallow and come to each other for comfort."
Does Jai have strong feelings for Leyla?
"I think they really do have a genuine thing for each other and that's something that we will see play out. This week is the beginning of something happening between them. With the recent poster that came out for the summer, it's clear to see that there is a love triangle coming. We're not really hiding the fact that the Leyla affair is going to be ongoing!"
Leyla offloads to Jai and before too long it leads to something else!
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Leyla offloads to Jai
The producers have teased that Megan's revenge will be one to watch out for when she knows the truth!
"I think Jai definitely needs to be wary of Megan. You can only rub so many people up the wrong way in a soap without getting your comeuppance, and I imagine that will come soon enough for Jai.
"To be honest with you, I don't actually know what happens yet because I'm not across the advance storylines. I'm just working on what we're filming now, but Jai is fairly ruthless over the coming period and he doesn't have that many redeemable qualities, so I'm sure there will be hell to pay!"
Is it nice to be involved in the show's big summer promo campaign?
"Yeah, it's always good when we get a bit of a momentum behind stories and the audience and the media get excited. We've had plenty of trailers and teasers to put out, because it gets people talking about it. I haven't read the scripts yet though, so all I can say is that we're all really excited to see what's coming."
We keep hearing whispers of death and destruction ahead in the summer...
"Well, I don't think I'll be speaking out of turn if I say you're pretty much guaranteed death and destruction of some kind at some point!"
Do the cast get nervous about those sorts of stories, knowing that some characters may have to go?
"I suppose it can be unsettling if you hear that there are going to be a lot of characters killed off. Some people worry about it more than others! I suppose it's inevitable, though - it's like in any big company when they announce the redundancies!
"What's fair to say is that in this line of business, it's always an option. Sometimes people can take it personally, but it's just the nature of the beast. That's what happens in soaps and that's what you know when you join a show."
Do you think what's coming up could top the 2013 siege and flood at The Woolpack?
"I would always like to think that we can go one better. The aspiration is always to go bigger. I don't think we'd ever admit or concede that we can't do any better than we've done previously, because we're always striving to be better!"