#kev townsend

[rosebush-dale]

Our sweet boys

[hummusandcoriander]

I think it’s likely that the original plan was for the flashback to reveal that Kev didn’t just stab himself but that he was behind Jez targeting Robert to begin with. So that he could “rescue him” and make Robert more dependent on him.

It’s never made sense to me if Kev was this feared psycho why he would let the beatings get so bad before intervening, or why Robert would have been targeted at all given who his cell mate was. Kev’s presence should have been enough of a deterrent from any bullies.

It will in fact remain my head canon until I’m told otherwise. Of course the chances of the show ever actually revealing it now that Kev is the cuddly cake man are slim.

[vagabondangel]

Can someone point me in the direction of the Chris interview everyone seems to be so angry about? I can only find the one with Chris and Will (Caleb) about upcoming storylines for Kev and Caleb and that interview seems pretty normal and not anything to be upset about

This part:

He also revealed a caveat he had for taking on the role: that Kev wouldn’t die of the ‘terminal’ heart condition that helped him escape prison.

‘When I was originally coming into it the first time round, they were like, ‘Kev’s this horrible manipulator who’s forced Robert [Sugden (Ryan Hawley)] to marry him in prison, he’s coming out and he’s going to die from a heart problem.’

‘And then I said, ‘I’m not going to do it if he dies.’ So they said, ‘Alright, he’s not going to die, he pretends he’s going to die.’ Those people who are angry are taking it to mean Chris Coghill took over the show and forced them to change the original ptsd SL they like to think the show had originally planned for Robert - I say 'they like to think' because nobody can claim to know what SL they had planned for Robert at first. Chris Coghill last year said he was looking for a longer term role and at first refused the Kev role when he found out the character would be killed after a couple of months. If the show was adamant about Kev being a very short term character, wouldn't they have looked for another actor rather than create a path for him to return by not killing him off? Those people are angry because they think the actor Chris Coghill made demands and forced Emmerdale to scrap a potential violent abuser prison husband and subsequent ptsd SL for Robert. Also this part: 'Robert’s an absolute lying piece of .....Nothing that came out of [Robert’s] mouth the entire time Kev was with Robert was true!' haha they are offended on Robert's behalf that the actor Chris said this about Robert and are saying he's slandering Robert's character. Now last year Chris himself said he knew nothing about Robron or any of the characters prior to coming on the show, so how would he know that Robert is indeed prone to lying lol? Maybe he was briefed about Robert's character by the writers and the producer themselves? Some of Robert's fans who are calling this slander apparently know more about who Robert is than how he has been consistently portrayed in canon: as someone who will lie if it benefits him. Lastly: "Laura did say to me the other week, ‘Do you want to do All I Want for Christmas is You?’, and I said, ‘If you keep me until Christmas 2029, I’ll do it then. We’re in constant negotiations. It’s excruciating. Horrible."

The actor never made a secret of the fact that he doesn't like the singing bits. There's another interview of him from a few months ago where he said when the producer called him to come back, he agreed on the condition that there would be no more karaokes. Yet they still got him to do the Boyzone father and son song to Lewis, and now they want to do a Christmas karaoke. This is being interpreted by some people as him dictating his terms to the show and unlike other actors, having the luxury of deciding what he will or wont do.

Thank you for sharing your perspective! I did eventually find the right interview thanks to @malivernys and I was able to read the article for myself.

I agree with basically everything you've said here. An actor saying "I don't want to play a character who dies of a terminal heart problem" is a perfectly normal and reasonable boundary to set. As you said, the Emmerdale creative team didn't have to create a path for him to return, no one demanded or forced them to do that, he didn't pressure them into it. He's just an actor who set a personal boundary and the Emmerdale creative team made the decision to work with him anyway, to work around the boundary by keeping the character alive. As you pointed out, they could've easily found a different actor if they really wanted to kill off the Kev character after a few months. But they didn't, and that's not the actor's fault for having a boundary.

Big Agree on Robert being a lying liar who lies, of course. As you said, Robert will lie if it benefits him. This is a long-established character trait. However, I do believe that Kev emotionally manipulated Robert into staying with him (stabbing himself in prison, lying about the severity of his heart problem, etc). They are both lying liars who lie if it benefits them, and in a twisted way, that kind of makes them perfect for each other lol.

Finally, there's no evidence that the actor forced the creative team to change the character in any way. Actors do not have that level of creative control, Chris Coghill does not have that level of creative control. He cannot change storylines or scripts; he's just an actor. He is not forcing the Emmerdale creative team to make the character more sympathetic, more funny, more endearing, more vulnerable, more slapstick. The creative team might be writing the character differently than before, but that has nothing to do with Chris Coghill's imaginary "demands" or "influence" over the show's creative direction - because he hasn't been making any "demands" and he has no influence over the show's creative direction. If the character is being written differently now and the fans don't like it, they can blame the creative team, not the actor, because he's literally just playing the role that he was given.

[vagabondangel]

Can someone point me in the direction of the Chris interview everyone seems to be so angry about? I can only find the one with Chris and Will (Caleb) about upcoming storylines for Kev and Caleb and that interview seems pretty normal and not anything to be upset about

[barnbert]

I do understand that Chris didn't request the singing, the gimmicks or how much the audience would warm but, by making him not die, we did get a watered down version.

The writing then had to change to accommodate a story they had mapped out.

And for that, we have to blame Laura Shaw to an extent

[hummusandcoriander]

Knowing now that they definitely were laying ground work to explore Robert’s trauma and it wasn’t just a John plot device and then after all that build up they just decided to shelve it because they decided keeping the actor they hired to play his tormentor was more important to them.

[glitradora]

im kinda down for kev going back to being violent honestly but this makes so little sense gfhbdnsja

buddy pal- when did you have time to get involved in this gbfhdsnja

[icouldshowyoumyscar]

Emmerdale drew me back with robron, but I'm staying for Claudette and her favourite son