Emmerdale actor Matthew Bose, who portrayed the role of Paul Lambert on the ITV soap, has opened up about how his sexuality has affected his career since his departure from the Dales.
Paul Lambert is the son of Rodney Blackstock and Val Lambert as well as the half-brother of Sharon Lambert, Bernice and Nicola Blackstock.
Matthew's character, Paul, arrived in the village in September 2004, after leaving Italy having split from his long-term partner, Enzo. Paul returns to Italy to try and fix the relationship but Enzo ends it.
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Paul and Val had had a difficult relationship for some years after he had had an affair with one of Val's boyfriends. His childhood was difficult, often having to protect his mother and get her out of trouble. He later revealed to his aunt Diane that he had been subjected to frequent beatings by his father and brothers.
At a family wedding later in 2004, Val revealed that Paul's father was not Jimmy Pepper but Rodney Blackstock, who was once married to Val's sister, Diane. Rodney and Paul then tried to build a relationship but Rodney struggled to cope with Paul's sexuality but they did succeed eventually.
Paul also became good friends with Emily Kirk and Perdy Hyde-Sinclair. During his time in the village, he worked as a barman at The Woolpack and an event organiser and was at the centre of many major storylines.
Matthew made TV history when his character Paul married Jonny Foster (Richard Grieve) in Emmerdale's first ever gay wedding, but now the star has spoken out about how his sexuality has impacted his career since leaving the show.
In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, the actor admitted he believes he was "gay on television when it wasn't cool".
Mathew originally left the soap after Paul tried to reconcile his relationship with Jonny, returning briefly in 2010 when his stepsister Nicola (Nicola Wheeler) got married to Jimmy King (Nick Miles).
Paul later appeared again in March 2015 following the death of his mum, Val. However, he quickly decided to leave again and set up a new life in Portugal.
Discussing his sexuality and his experiencing playing Paul, Mathew said: "I was gay on television when it wasn't really cool, you know?
"And so I was doing drag on Emmerdale when it wasn't really cool and I was doing gay-kissing… Daniel Brocklebank and I did a gay kiss and it was a bit too passionate, [we got] hundreds and hundreds of complaints.
"And then I did the first primetime marriage. So, I'm now in a way of paying the price perhaps from being part of that.
"It's quite interesting how I think gay history or LGBTQ plus history is very important, we all know that, and we're built on the back of all these amazing people that did all this stuff before us."
The actor who has since gone on to star in Channel 4's It's A Sin as Dr Sullivan, discussed how casting for acting roles has changed.
He also revealed that before he bagged his Emmerdale gig, he had decided to change his name.
"It's slightly controversial to say, but when I first started in acting, I was considered too brown perhaps and too gay perhaps," he continued. "The first one you could do something about because I can change my name.
"So Matthew is my English name, so I started using Matthew, so now I'm starting to use my Indian name again which is Rajat which is on my social media now."
He went on to add: "Business is saying, 'Come on everyone come forward and reclaim your ethnic backgrounds,' which is great and I absolutely approve of that.
"But I'm sort of caught in the middle of it really because Matthew was successful before and now Raj or Rajat is sort of being pushed forward and I am doing some [acting] bits and pieces, but really, in many ways, I'm not brown or gay enough now, just to come full circle.
"The irony is and this is a slightly controversial thing to say that in the beginning, I changed my name to Matthew because I was playing all these brown people skulking around in the background.
"And now I'm sort of doing the same thing, [but] it's now ticking a box, whereas before it didn't."
After leaving the Dales Matthew took a step back from acting to spend time looking after his partner's children and after joining a new agency he said he can "do exactly as I please".
Matthew is also an avid gardener after spending a lot of time in his allotment growing vegetables during the coronavirus pandemic.
Addressing his acting break, Mathew said: "This is the question...have I taken a step back from it or has it taken a step back from me? You never know as an actor in many ways.
"I think the way a lot of people are viewed now is changing because we have a lot of demarcation.
"You know, it's like, [you get asked] 'What's your sexuality, what's your ethnic background?' And I've always sort of skated over all of those things because nobody knows where I am from or how old I am, that used to be good and now I think it’s less good and people don’t know where to fit me.
"For a while, my partner had children so I was sort of half looking after them and just deciding what I wanted to do and that was pretty much post-Emmerdale and all of that."
Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7.30pm on ITV.
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