Emmerdale star Ned Porteous has explained his character Joe Tate’s shocking measures to get Caleb Milligan’s kidney.

Viewers recently saw the revelation that Joe is seriously ill with chronic kidney disease, leading the character to carry out an outrageous plan to secure Caleb’s kidney after it was revealed that he was a suitable match.

Joe asked his co-conspirator Shaun to stab Caleb and steal his car, after which Joe took Caleb to a private hospital, where Dr Crowley to successfully performed the transplant.

Explaining why Joe resorted to to such desperate measures to get a kidney rather going down the more conventional NHS route, Porteous said: “Well, I think he probably did try that.

“There is a downside, obviously, as wonderful as having a National Health Service is in this country and what a brilliant service they are.”

He continued: “The downside being sometimes you have to wait to get what you want. There are lots of people on these transplant lists.

“And Joe, I think would assume that maybe his life is more important than others. So he’s going to do whatever he can to jump that list.

“If he believes that he’s only got X amount of weeks or months left, you know, what would he be willing to do to jump it.

“He’s definitely not going to be waiting the four, five, six, sometimes even longer amount of months that it is to get your kidney properly.”

The actor was also asked if we can expect a Dingle/Milligan family showdown if and when Joe gets caught, to which he said: “I think you can always expect a showdown in this show. I think it would be really exciting to see a big clash of these, you know, Titan families in the show.

“I’d like to see a big bust up between the Dingles, the Milligans, the Tates, you know, I think I think the fans would like to see that as well. It is boring to see a show where everyone’s getting on.”