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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Jasmine Allday

Emmerdale star teases 'rollercoaster' 50th anniversary episodes as he hints at a death

Emmerdale star Jay Kontzle has teased a "rollercoaster ride" for its 50th anniversary episodes.

The soap actor - who plays Billy Fletcher on the ITV show - has teased a lot of drama to mark the upcoming anniversary, and he has hinted that there could be a death as part of it, ahead of the show's dramatic episodes in October to mark its 50th year on screens.

Speaking about the soap's upcoming celebration, he explained: "It’s going to be incredible. All I can say is it’ll be a rollercoaster ride. It’s a great place to work and I’ve loved being involved with things like Super Soap Week.

Billy Fletcher is played by Jay Kontzle (ITV)

"The plots are always so different and I’ve had some great ones."

However, Jay also seemingly hinted there could be at least one death during the soap's special month long celebrations as he revealed his character Billy "always seems to be around death".

"My character always seems to be around death, which is a bit morbid, but I prefer those high-stakes scenes," he told OK! magazine, "People might not know this but we film nine to 11 scenes a day and it can be gruelling – but we get through it as a team."

Him and Dawn were caught up in Meena's reign of terror (ITV)

It comes after actor Kevin Mathurin - who plays vicar Charles Anderson on the soap - told The Mirror that there was "the odd funeral" on the way, as he hinted at multiple deaths during the show's dramatic month of episodes.

"All I can say is Charles is going to have a lot of work to do, and he'll be going around checking on his parishioners, seeing if people are okay and there might be the odd funeral. I'll leave it at that, I think I've said too much already," he said.

"You'll have to check out the 50th anniversary special, that's all I'm gonna say. I won't say any more."

Billy and Dawn recently married (ITV)

Bosses have also teased the anniversary will be very dramatic.

"Of course, we're still planning for our huge 50th golden birthday in the autumn," producer Laura Shaw teased, "I think we're all absolutely really giddy about it here - it's just our big chance to showcase everything we do best and make sure every single one of our wonderful characters in the show gets a little bit of limelight.

"So there's definitely going to be something for everyone there."

*Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.

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