Harriet Finch’s stalker has been unveiled as her ex-partner Will Taylor who has returned to Emmerdale to punish her for the part she played in sending him to prison years before.
Life On Mars star Dean Andrews debuted as the sinister criminal behind a campaign of cruel acts which left Walker (Katherine Dow Blyton) scared in her own home.
Taylor was thought dead after reports he had killed himself in prison reached the village, but these had been part of a ruse.
Walker’s own daughter Dawn (Olivia Bromley) even appears to be in on the plan, with her meeting Taylor in a secluded forest to plot against Finch.
“I know you want to make her suffer but I don’t want to lose you again. I’ve just got you back,” Dawn tells him.
“Believe me, it’s the last thing I want,” Walker replies before alluding to his intentions.
“I know exactly what I’m going to do to her. She’s going to pay for what she took from me.
“I want her to know what it is like to have your life turned upside down, to have everything you love taken away from you.
“She needs to feel like a prisoner in her own home, shut away away with nothing and nobody to help her. I want her so scared, so lonely that she has no life left at all.
“And I want her to know it was me who did that to her.”
ITV kept details of Taylor’s backstory scant but did hint he would also go head to head with Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley).
Andrews is best known for playing DS Ray Carling in the BBC crime drama Life On Mars and reprising the role in sequel series Ashes To Ashes.
The actor has also appeared in Torvill And Dean, Marchlands and The Moorside.
“I’m glad the cat’s out of the bag and it’ll be nice to explore the character really in more detail,” he said.
“He’s just come out of prison, he’s quite a hard man. He was a drug baron back in the day and part of organised crime, but got put in jail by Harriet Finch (Katherine Dow Blyton).
“She helped put him away and he owes a lot of anger for that and he’s reunited with his daughter, who he holds a lot of guilt for not being there to look after her.
“There’s all kind of emotions going off with him and again, hopefully we can explore that.”