Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) gets a letter in the post in Emmerdale soon, and it changes her and Ross Barton’s (Michael Parr) lives forever.
Ross is son of Emma Barton, the crazed character who was responsible for a number of crimes including the Hotten Bypass crash. When Ross was a baby, Emma smothered him, and was also responsible for shooting Ross’ little brother Finn.
Emma died in 2017 as a result of Moira pushing her from a viaduct. Her entire reign over the Bartons is something they have all worked hard to forget – but that’s all going to change next week.
When Moira looks through her mail, she’s taken aback to find a letter addressed to ‘The Family of Emma Barton’. Haunted by memories of the past, Moira toys between whether or not to tell Ross.
Eventually, Moira shares the letter with Ross and to his shock, he learns that he has a half-brother.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ross’ reaction is to bury his head in the sand but once Matty (Ash Palmisciano) points out he really doesn’t have anything to lose, Ross decides to contact Lewis.
‘He’s obviously nervous, but also excited’, star Bradley Riches said, revealing how Lewis is feeling before coming face to face with Ross.
‘He’s got a lot of questions he wants answered. Ross is caught off guard about how open Lewis is to knowing. Ross has never really been around someone who’s that open. The last person he did have that connection with was his brother Finn.
‘It’s quite nice when Ross says Lewis would quite like Finn, he’d get along with him. Finn and Ross had a great relationship and maybe in future Lewis and Ross can have the same relationship.’
When Lewis meets Ross, he immediately sets about asking him loads of questions. Ross needs to keep secrets from Lewis regarding Emma but as a result of his distant behaviour, the dynamic becomes awkward and difficult.
In the end, Ross decides to go, leaving a hurt Lewis behind. However, when he gets home, Ross tells Moira that it was a mutual decision for the siblings to abandon any family reunion.
This won’t be the last we see of Lewis, which means Ross will be faced with his little brother again in the not too distant future.
Actor Michael Parr recently explained why Ross struggles so much to see Lewis:
‘It’s quite hard for Ross to get his head around because he’s lost so many people that he loves. There’s so many similarities between this character and Finn that he puts his walls up because he can’t emotionally afford to lose anybody else.
‘It takes a little while for Ross to let his guard down. But you’ll see that the character is quite infectious and it’s hard for Ross to say no to him because he is very pure and it reminds him of Finn.
He added: ‘It’s been nice for Ross to have somebody on his side, because he was starting to think that he was the touch of death. Everybody he gets close to seems to get killed off.
‘He’s lost two girlfriends, four family members and he’s had a lot of unlucky situations.’
