Emmerdale star reacts as Matthew Wolfenden joins rival soap
His Hollyoaks debut aired this week, and it was pretty explosive.
Emmerdale star Joe-Warren Plant has reacted to his former co-star Matthew Wolfenden making his debut in fellow soap Hollyoaks this week. Plant plays Jacob Sugden in the ITV soap, while Wolfenden played on-screen father figure David Metcalfe.
As of a few days ago, though, Wolfenden is playing Jonah Keane in the Channel 4 soap, and his new stint has already got off to a highly-dramatic start. And even though he is now working on a rival show, Plant is more than excited for his former co-star.
“Oh I’m absolutely over the moon for him, honestly”, Plant said.
“I’ve said it many, many times before but I have so much love for Matthew. He’s done a little bit of panto and a West End show, so it’s nice to see him back on our TV screens again, doing what he does best.”
Wolfenden previously said about his Emmerdale departure that it was down to him landing a role in the stage version of Elf, and being offered a choice.
“They said ‘if we set a precedence to let you out for three months to do that we’ve got to let other people out too.’ And I absolutely understood that,” he said. “My contract was coming to an end and I had this big decision to make, do I leave an 18-year job to do an eight-week show?”
“I was 43 at the time, and I thought, ‘If I don’t do it now then I’ll never do it.’ I absolutely adored [Emmerdale] and [my decision] had nothing to do with the fact that I wasn’t enjoying it anymore, it was just that I wanted to go out and spread my wings.”
ITV’s other soap Coronation Street is currently undertaking a similar story, one that Plant was a major part of almost a decade ago – which was referenced in Emmerdale itself this week.
Speaking about Corrie‘s Will and Megan storyline, Plant said: “I haven’t seen too much of it recently, but I have great faith in the fact that they’re doing an amazing job and also raising awareness for such important topics.
“I can’t stress how important it is for people to be having these conversations, so I’ll have to tune in and see how they do it.”
