Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) was thrilled when she discovered John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), the half brother she never knew she had, in Emmerdale recently.
Once a mainstay family of the show, Sugdens have been much thinner on the ground recently with only Victoria and Sarah (Katie Hill) left. So for Victoria it was a huge deal to meet John, and she hoped that they would soon be bonding and planning cosy family Christmases together and so on.
Very quickly it became obvious that John is not a cosy, family sort of person. In fact he’s practically the word ‘loner’ in human form, happy to live in his van, not getting involved with anyone and not putting down roots.
Until, that is, he arrived in the Dales for his mother’s funeral, where he met Victoria by chance.
With his precious van needing repairs – and then more repairs after Mack (Lawrence Robb) managed to drown it in a lake – he was forced to stay in the village for longer than planned and Victoria has been doing her best to get him to bond.
One person he has bonded with is Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller). The attraction between the two men has been instant and undeniable, but it’s also somewhat awkward because of the fact that John is the half brother of Aaron’s ex, Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley).
Victoria is about to find out about this relationship in upcoming episodes when she grabs John’s phone, annoyed that he isn’t paying attention to the family photos she’s trying to show him.
‘She sees that there’s quite a few texts off Aaron,’ Isabel Hodgins told us. ‘And she sees that one is of a particular nature. She’s very shocked to see that. And so she asks him what’s going on, why is Aaron messaging you like that?’
Isabel explained that Victoria’s reaction is based on not wanting Aaron to ruin things between her and John – as well as being a bit jealous because of her own friendship with Aaron.
‘I think she’s shocked because she’s now got this relationship with Aaron where it’s back to Victoria and Aaron rather than Aaron being with Robert. The first and foremost at the minute is her friend. So there’s a little sense of betrayal there as in how could he be doing this to me when he’s my friend?
‘Her whole reasoning is that Aaron has been involved with Robert and Aaron is a bit of a liability. And if they continue to see each other and it goes wrong, John’s going to leave and he’s going to leave the village. And that’s the last thing that she wants. So that’s why she is so bothered.’
