Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell)’s nasty side has well and truly returned in Emmerdale in the past couple of weeks.
The previously villainous character has mellowed in recent years, and has been at the centre of a family including partner Brenda Walker (Lesley Dunlop), son David Metcalfe (Matthew Wolfenden) and grandson Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant).
Viewers have seen his behaviour changing recently, however. Shockingly we saw him swindle Kerry Wyatt (Laura Norton) by getting her to believe that a valuable necklace she was hoping to sell to pay for Amy (Natalie-Ann Jamieson) and Matty (Ash Palmisciano)’s wedding was worthless.
It was, in fact, worth as much as Kerry thought it was but Eric sold it himself, pocketed the cash and paid for the wedding – and is now demanding repayments with interest from Kerry.
Meanwhile the discovery that Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) had dumped his grandson Jacob – a relationship that had led to Victoria’s ex and Jacob’s dad David Metcalfe leaving the village for good – soon had Pollard out for revenge against Victoria. He got Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) to sack her by pretending she’d allowed a pizza to be served with broken glass in it.
All of this has shifted Pollard firmly back into ‘villain’ territory – but could his recent Parkinson’s diagnosis be part of the reason for his change in behaviour? Sometimes the illness can cause mental health issues, so the storyline might be headed this way.
In Monday (April 22)’s episode Pollard took Jacob to the Hide for lunch to cheer him up. Victoria was also there to pick up her P45, and Jai was annoyed to hear Pollard being horrible about her.
Jai hadn’t wanted to sack her but felt backed into a corner by Pollard who knows that Jai got rid of Amit (Anil Goutam) from the village after pushing him downstairs and threatening him. Pollard continued to capitalise on this hold over Jai by ordering literally everything on the menu plus cocktails and asking for it to be put on his tab.
It all got too much for Jai and he told Eric he was ‘taking liberties.’ He then threatened him, saying ‘You know what I can do when people cross me, Eric.’
Eric knows exactly what Jai can do and referred to it in a voice loud enough to be overheard – that Jai had thrown Amit down the stairs. He added that Jai had proved the nature versus nurture debate as Rishi (Bhasker Patel) – who brought him up – would never have resorted to violence, whereas biological father Amit of course did, because he killed Rishi.
‘You are your father’s son,’ he snarled.
Will Pollard take heed of Jai’s words and moderate his behaviour? Is Nasty Eric here to stay? Or is this part of a tragic decline for the beloved character?
