Emmerdale spoilers follow.
A mysterious new villain will be arriving in the village next week when Emmerdale‘s Lewis Barton is shockingly taken hostage. The kidnapper is revealed to be a woman named Kylie, who fans may recognise as Fame Academy star Pippa Fulton.
Fulton competed in the first series of the BBC talent show back in 2002, and went on to appear in Coronation Street as Aurora, the friend of Steve McDonald’s date. This is also her third time in the Dales, having previously played two respective roles in 2014 and 2017.
Next week, Fulton’s new character Kylie makes a bold move as she abducts a terrified Lewis while he’s on his way to the airport. Lewis is bundled into the back of a van by masked assailants, with his brother Ross Barton receiving a text informing him of the kidnapping.
The message warns that Lewis is in grave danger unless his father returns ‘Penny’ to the kidnapper. Concerned Ross tries to find Lewis’ adoptive dad Jeffrey, before Dr Liam Cavanagh shares that Kev Townsend is actually Lewis’ biological father.
Later, Kylie visits Ross to reveal herself as the captor and reiterates her demand for ‘Penny’ to be returned immediately. Liam convinces Claudette to give him Kev’s whereabouts, and they find him selling cakes from his van.
When questioned about ‘Penny’, Kev claims it’s a diamond he sold to a pawn shop, and Ross instructs him to buy it back. But viewers soon learn that the diamond wasn’t actually sold and is sitting around Kev’s neck.
Later, as Ross and Liam continue to panic about Lewis, they receive another threatening text from Kylie. The newcomer then video calls Kev giving him a deadline of the end of the day to return ‘Penny’.
After being reminded of Kylie’s lengthy stay in Holloway Prison, Kev reconsiders and tells Ross that he found the diamond. However, Ross doesn’t quite buy the story and knocks Kev unconscious.
He sets up a meeting with Kylie to get his brother back safely, using Kev as an insurance policy for the trade. But will things go smoothly?
