Poor Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson). The loveable Emmerdale lad has been through the ringer since attempting to kiss his best friend, Kammy Hadiq (Shebz Miah) while engaged to Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) and falling further into confusion regarding his sexuality.

When he tried to find answers online, he found only further trouble in blackmailer, extortionist and all-around scumbag, Mike (Macaulay Cooper), who beat seven shades out of him and took £10,000 of his money.

Finally opening up to Kammy over what had happened, his kind hearted best friend tried to fix the situation by meeting with Mike himself and stealing his phone.

It was a sweet gesture, but made everything ten times worse as Mike demanded another ten grand, else he’d expose Vinny’s secret at the reception.

Vinny reported Mike to the police for the attack and the extortion, and later married Gabby, though as he’s called to testify in court, he’s terrified of her discovering all that he’s worked so hard to keep hidden from her.

Speaking on how Vinny feels to face Mike in court, Bradley said: ‘It’s still very fresh for Vinny, what he’s been through is a massive ordeal and any sort of confrontation with Mike is horrendous for him and it brings back so many of those horrible feelings of what Mike did to him.

‘He’s scared, he’s anxious that at any minute it could ruin the wedding and he’ll tell Gabby everything, and everything will be called off. His life could be over by some horrible person who’s using Vinny and blackmailing him.’

With Gabby elated at the prospect of Vinny adopting her young son Thomas, Bradley spoke about how his alter ego feels about the plan: ‘What happened with Vinny and his father, he’s never had that father figure in his life so it’s a big role for him to step up to and he doesn’t want to let him or Gabby down.

‘He wants to be the father he never had growing up. It’s a really big responsibility for him.’

…and of the risk of losing both Gabby and Thomas if his role as a witness in Mike’s case is revealed?

‘Part of him wants to tell the truth and send this man down and get him for all the things he’s done, but on the other side he thinks, ‘Can I tell Gabby this?’ and if she finds out, will she leave him? Will the adoption be off? He’s really torn with everything.’

When asked how Vinny feels Gabby may react, Bradley said: ‘Obviously Vinny thinks that would be it. At the end of the day he’s gone behind her back because he’s been having doubts about his sexuality.

‘Vinny knows what Gabby’s been through in the past and it’s happened to her and I don’t think Gabby could take one more person doing that to her. It would break her and I think Vinny knows that.’

When asked if he felt that Vinny and Gabby could survive the revelation, he said: Do you personally hope Vinny and Gabby can get through this? What would he do if he discovered her secret?

‘In an ideal world I would love to see Vinny be honest and tell Gabby the truth. They’ve both done things they shouldn’t have done.

‘Being in that relationship they should have confided in each other and have an open conversation rather than going behind each other’s backs and doing things they probably shouldn’t have done.’

When asked about how he feels about the storyline and the chance to explore more sides of Vinny, Bradley said: ‘I think there’s different layers to Vinny. Every time something bad happens to him he gets bigger and stronger as a character and a person.

‘From the start of this storyline to where it is now, I feel like it’s come a long way. I think it’s a really important story to tell. There are so many people in the real world who are struggling with their sexuality.