Emmerdale’s Oliver Farnworth teases killer John’s future after wedding week nightmare

“John is all about control and is terrified of losing it,” begins the actor, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com. “In his waking thoughts he can compartmentalise and rationalise what he’s done, but in his subconscious he is wracked with guilt.”

Viewers get a peek into that mercurial mind in a series of stylised dream sequences playing out across the week. Each episode begins with a different nightmare showing how the wedding could go wrong, relating to John’s various misdemeanours.

Utmost in his mind is the potential discovery of Nate Robinson’s corpse – accidentally killed by John eight months ago and dumped in the lake, which now needs dredging due an incident with some slurry orchestrated by Mr Sugden to discredit arch rival Mackenzie Boyd.

Everyone thinks Nate did a runner to Scotland, so there’s bound to be questions when the corpse is inevitably fished out of the water.

“The discovery of Nate’s body is absolutely terrifying,” continues Farnworth. “Obviously there would have to be a criminal investigation, the consequences of which would be huge. John would be disowned by everyone, go to prison, or get in his van and have to move on somewhere else. He could lose everything.”

Alongside Nate’s fate is the threat posed by Aidan Moore, John’s former lover and army colleague he claims he tried to save, and who has been in a coma for the last few years. Aidan is now wide awake, which appears to be bad news for John for reasons we’re not yet clear on.

“We’re getting fragments of what really happened to Aidan, who was the love of his life at one point. Now he’s woken up, what will he reveal about John’s past? We know John has visited Aidan while he’s been comatose and confided in him about the things he’s done – what has Aidan retained? Hearing Aidan is awake is the last thing he needs, so what will he do about that?

“The big picture is Nate, but the immediacy is the Aidan situation. That could flare up quicker, but both of them are seismic. John genuinely loves Aaron and wants them to get married. He would lay down his life for Aaron, along with his sister Victoria and nephew Harry. He can’t lose them.”

The root of John’s issues are his complicated saviour complex, an obsessive desire to be seen as a hero to the point where he deliberately hurts people just so he can experience the glory of saving them. This has led to some unfortunate incidents, including the aforementioned Nate, who paramedic John treated for injuries sustained in a fight, only for the patient to unexpectedly die from a reaction the medication.

Among various other ill-advised actions, John has also secretly attacked Dr Liam Cavanagh and intentionally given Jacob Gallagher anaphylactic shock in order to swoop in and save the day. His addiction to the adrenaline rush is getting out of hand.

“John wants love and acceptance, the downside is he keeps engineering situations to gain that for himself, but at the expense of other people’s safety. He needs to be needed.”

Unlike some killers who have stalked the Dales, such as menacing Meena Jutla, Farnworth insists John takes no pleasure in taking lives or covering his tracks. “I don’t play him as truly evil or getting kicks out of doing harm. John does things from a place of survival and keeping hold of his self-esteem so he can function in society. It’s nice to get some vulnerability in there, which is only shown to the audience but not to those around him.

“John can adapt to situations, he puts on a strong persona to get his own way and maintain control. Now he’s built this ego for himself he’d never want to display that vulnerability to his loved ones because it equals weakness. What if they disown him? It’s too late to be honest.”

The long-lost Sugden, Emmerdale’s first family, was introduced almost a year ago, the love child of the late Jack Sugden, who never knew a fling in the 1980s led to him having another son. John’s lack of connection with his father explains a lot, as Farnworth explains the backstory that shaped his troubled psyche.

“He was probably a quiet, sensitive child who felt disowned and abandoned by his father. He joined the army and didn’t feel lonely any more, being surrounded by comrades and vibing off that testosterone-fuelled environment. More than anything the army gave John acceptance into a family.

“When we first saw him he was a lone wolf, committed to this itinerant, transactional life, travelling alone in his van. Coming to Emmerdale has switched his emotions back on.”

Fans didn’t know what to make of John’s inscrutable nature early on, and Farnworth was drip-fed details of the long-term arc which has unfolded as a slow-burn saga with increasingly high stakes – although filming footage for a future flashback indicated to the actor what was in store.

“We filmed John killing Nate very early on as Jurell (Carter, who played Nate) was leaving, and his character was going to be missing for months before we knew what happened to him.

“I’d only been there a few weeks but this was a big pointer of a darker side emerging for John. The writers have really invested in the storyline and woven John into the fabric of the village, which I’m really grateful for. You’ve got to build up to a pay-off.

“It’s like creating a painting: you start with a base coat, add certain layers then change a little bit. That’s the nature of the character and how he adapts to his surroundings.”

Combining boy next door charisma with an imperceptible edge of something more sinister, Yorkshire-born Farnworth has quickly established himself as an Emmerdale A-lister.

He was already a familiar face to soap fans, thanks to his Coronation Stint as doomed Andy Carver. After being seemingly killed off by evil Pat Phelan in 2017, Andy was revealed to be alive several months later in one of Corrie’s most notorious twists of recent years.

He eventually came a cropper for real, but the experience made stepping back onto the soap treadmill that bit smoother for Farnworth.

“The technical side of Corrie and Emmerdale is very similar, it’s great to have that background. You understand how it all works so you can hit the ground running. I love the intensity, every day you’re stretched, filming in three different locations, getting through pages of dialogue – it’s a mental workout. You’re scrambled but you sleep really well!”

Farnworth’s screen acting career started in the world of soap back in 2006 while he was still studying, and the role of stalker Will Hackett in Hollyoaks led to him making a life-changing decision.

“I actually left drama school a month early to do Hollyoaks,” he reveals. “I’d started auditions and was thrown into working in front of a camera for real. That was a learning curve. I was grateful to learn on the job, I was there for about eight months and had a great time. Will was a dodgy character with an air of mystery, I must have one of those faces!”