Emmerdale is set to introduce new character Steve, played by Waterloo Road‘s Jason Done, to the village next week. But while he’s a new face to the show, he’s a familiar one to Kev Barton, who isn’t best pleased to see him show up.

The two go way back, getting up to all sorts of unsavoury business back in the day. But while Steve wants to pick up where they left off, Kev is desperately trying to turn over a new lead for his son Lewis.

“Steve and Kev are like two sides of the same coin,” Kev actor Chris Coghill said. “Steve is basically Kev before he found out about Lewis.

“They grew up together, they are as thick as thieves. If it weren’t for Lewis, I think he would fall back in with him pretty much straight away.”

The actor continued: “For Steve, it’s the same as it always was and he expects it to be just like it always has been: They’d go on the rob, a crime duo, even though they’ve not seen each other for years.

“It’s one of those friendships that just falls back into routine but Kev is trying his very best not to do that. So Steve turning up at this point as he’s started to connect with Lewis is an absolute nightmare.”

To make matters worse, Steve ruins Lewis’s 24th birthday, which Kev had tried so hard to make right.

“He does go a bit overboard and gets a bit too obsessed with it. It’s actually really nice what he does for him,” Coghill said of Kev’s birthday plans.

The actor added that Steve will try “very hard” to get Kev back on side, and that his character will feel “very torn” but is “100% determined to bond with Lewis and be a decent dad to Lewis” – and “will stop at nothing to do so”.

Coghill further teased that Steve’s arrival would “undoubtedly” cause trouble for other villagers, but wouldn’t say who.