AN EMMERDALE villain is making a shock return to the village – just months after his dramatic exit.

The ITV soap is bringing back the mysterious Dr Crowley for a revenge plot against Joe Tate.

Viewers will remember that Crowley was the doctor who helped Joe in his organ steaming scam.

With Joe needing a new organ to survive, Joe paid the doctor handsomely to illegal operate on an unwilling victim in order to save Joe’s life.

He ended up taking Caleb Miligan’s kidney after he was stabbed and transplanting it into Joe before fleeing the country.

However he will now make a shock return and take Joe captive with a fiendish plan.

Actor James Hillier will be back on screens next week as part of the plot.

Joe actor Ned Porteous has opened up about the moment Joe finds himself knocked out and coming to in a makeshift operating theatre while the bad doctor looks on.

“[Joe’s] very confused, very scared,” he said.

“A very powerless situation for Joe to be in.”

And talking about working with James again, Ned said: “He’s a really, really lovely guy.

“I enjoy working with him, and the character that he built is fun, it’s got more dimensions than just a helper, and it serves as a very interesting character going forward.

“Hopefully the audience likes what we do with it, because it all gets a bit crazy.”

He added of Joe: “I like to believe that he’s just doing what he has to do to survive, and I think if you were to hold that mirror up to everyone and say, ‘What would you do if your life really depended on it?’ Could you really ask yourself… you wouldn’t do that?

“People say that they wouldn’t want to, and it’s not the right thing to do. Of course it’s the wrong thing to do, it’s completely unethical, it’s completely immoral, but he was fighting for his life and now he’s just having to pick up the scraps, I guess.”