Emmerdale star Jay Kontzle has teased an explosive return for a villain who terrorised his character Billy Fletcher and his wife Dawn (Olivia Bromley).
Following the exciting news that Dawn and Billy are expecting a baby, their lives could be turned upside down by an unwelcome return in the form of Dawn's drug dealer ex Alex Moore (Liam Boyle).
Alex is the father of Dawn's son Lucas and her adopted daughter Clemmie, which Dawn discovered at Clemmie's mum, Beth's funeral after Alex had an affair with Beth.
Dawn dated Alex when she was a drug addict, but while Dawn has turned her life around for the better, Alex is still stuck in his criminal ways. He returned to the village to try and rob drugs from the doctor's surgery and threatened to ruin Dawn and Billy's adoption case.
After Billy accidentally ran Alex over with his car, Alex left the Dales when he was scared away by vicar Charles Anderson (Kevin Mathurin) who uncovered Alex's evil intentions.
But while Charles intervened and put a stop to Alex's reign of terror, Jay has hinted that this may not be the last we've seen of the criminal.
Jay told What To Watch and other press: "I personally think that he's always going to be in the back of everyone's minds and it's one of those things that we're kind of tethered together.
"Just with the fact that we've now got Lucas and Clemmie and he's not seen or heard at the moment that he's not out of the picture. So yeah, there's always potential for him to pop up and do some damage."
Olivia Bromley, who plays his on-screen wife Dawn, also added: "I think that he's just a presence in our lives, like Jay says, that we can't get rid of him entirely because of the kids. But at the moment, we think he's out of the picture and we've got a little bit of relief, because he left the village under very scared circumstances. So we're pretty positive he's not around at the moment. But yeah, he could crop up at any time, so it's a bit of a threat."
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7.30 pm on ITV1, with a hour-long episode on Thursdays — see our TV Guide for full listings. You can also catch up on ITVX.