Emmerdale's Kev Townsend actor Chris Coghill told the Mirror that it was never intended for Kev to be a comedy character, and he hinted bossed had initially planned for Kev to die19:49, 11 Aug 2026Updated 19:50, 11 Aug 2026Emmerdale: Will the wedding of Dawn and Joe end in tragedy?Fans of Emmerdale have grown to love comedic villain Kev Townsend.‌But the character, and his storyline, was almost very different. Fans know that when Kev joined the show initially last year, he claimed to his then husband Robert Sugden that he was dying from a heart condition.‌It soon turned out he was faking the fact that his condition was terminal. But speaking to the Mirror, Kev actor Chris Coghill may have just revealed that the initial plan WAS to kill of Kev.‌There's also the fact that the writing for Kev and the storylines were all changed, with him also brought back after an exit. None of this was ever meant to happen, but Chris' portrayal of Kev led to the show switching the character up from the planned villain.Chris told us: "When I was originally coming into it, the first time round, they were like, 'Yeah, Kev's this horrible manipulator who's forced Robert to marry him in prison. He's coming out and he's going to die'.‌"And I went, 'I'm not going to do it if he dies,' and they said, 'All right, he doesn't die. He pretends he's going to die!' I always knew that first [stint] was going to be sort of the timescale of what he was going to play out."But as we did it, and to an extent, sort of the way that I was doing it, they went, 'Oh, we could write slightly different,' and it became a little bit funnier, and more endearing, and sort of like he had a bit more of a vulnerable side."He can go from being a psycho to vulnerable, to quite slapstick and quite helpless, all in one. scene, and then back to being scary again! Which is quite unusual to do.‌"After the first stint they said, "This wasn't what we intended to happen," and they asked me to come back." He added: "This time I've come back, there's been a lot more of the sympathetic psychopath, if you will."Chris is loving getting to play so many different sides to the complex character. He explained: "I'm still switching every now and then, so it's nice. It's a bit like a playground, isn't it, that you can do everything all at once, and they give me freedom to change, mess about a bit in scenes and stuff.Article continues below"I'm just doing what I'm doing and I'm really liking it!" Asked about public reaction to his character, Chris confessed he's often asked about Kev's famous lemon drizzle cakes.Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .