Ross Barton’s comeback hasn’t worked – his feud is ludicrous & dredging up Donna’s death is lazy, says Emmerdale fan

I HAVE loved the build up to another dramatic Emmerdale Christmas; the highly anticipated climax of the Will Taylor and Kim Tate love-hate feud, the hopeful conclusion to Tom King’s reign of terror – we’ve all been waiting for that one right?

But one returning character and their story lines have just fallen flat for me.

At first the return of Ross Barton after six years away from the village was a great surprise.

Even though it had been announced, it was still a shock to see the hunky hardman squaring off against poor Billy in an illegal fight.

In classic soap style though, it wasn’t enough for Ross to make a fleeting return so he and Billy could make a quick buck.

He had to stick around, as if suddenly remembering his son - that he fathered with Charity - and the rest of the loose ends he left before leaving to live just over the Pennines in Liverpool.

He was easily close enough to visit or drop in but it seems that now he’s back his character is being used to unearth a world of pain and misery for several of the village’s residents in very quick fashion.

The main issue is his beef with criminal fight organiser Jade. She makes for an unlikely super villain, swanning around the village in a beret making threats.

A case of mistaken identity lead to her demanding £10,000 from Ross that she believed he stole.

This lead the fighter to try an unconvincing shake down of half the village.

Despite Ross's best menacing attempts, even Jai Sharma essentially just told him to get lost when he threatened to expose their joint robbery plan.

The whole thing seemed forced as a way for Jade to follow through on her threats and to kidnap April, the daughter of Ross’s one time love, Donna.

It’s been over a decade since police officer Donna threw herself over the edge of a multi-story carpark to take down the evil Gary North while Ross watched on helplessly.

Jade dragging both Ross and April to that exact car park seemed dark enough, but then to dangle the teenager over the edge seemed a step too far.

Ross just watched on and when the money was only partly returned by the actual thieves, Mack and Aaron, Jade seemed to just back down, throwing around some more loose threats.

Feeling the need to explain to April the poignance of the day’s events, Ross proceeds to tell a child about her mother’s death when she was already deeply in shock at having been dangled over a roof.

The worst she had expected at the start of that day was double maths.  

It all just seemed too much, too soon as a clumsy way of setting up a Christmas crisis for young April, who was drip fed confusing bits of information about her mum and rowed with dad Marlon about the ordeal.

Surprise, surprise April then lurches from one conclusion to another – her mum was selfish, oh no it was actually all her fault after all and Ross just seemed to make things worse, no matter what he said.

I think both actors, Michael Parr, who play Ross, and especially Amelia Flanagan, who plays April, are brilliant and I’m glad that April is being given bigger story lines.

But with April due to ‘go missing’ over Christmas, Ross seems to have been brought back purely to rush through a quick, unrealistic set up for a festive story line that none of us really wanted to see.

If the new year sees the hardman disappear again having done nothing to develop his character or fill in the gaps as to his whereabouts in the last six years, then the writers will have missed a great opportunity.

Personally I would like to see more revealed about his time away from the village, it seems like his character development has been somewhat side lined in a bid to further others.

Emmerdale airs on ITV1 and is available on ITVX.