Jonathan Wrather was told to wear a disguise to keep his ‘Emmerdale’ comeback a secret.
The 50-year-old actor – who played Pierce Harris from 2016 until 2017 – is back in the Yorkshire village after his character was granted early release after he was convicted of raping Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) on their wedding day, and the soap star is glad the team decided to keep the return under wraps.
Appearing on ITV’s ‘Loose Women’ on Tuesday (25.02.20), he said: "I was initially asked – I thought this was a joke and then there was no laugh at the end of it – to come in a motorcycle helmet.
"’Oh really, you really mean that?’ I do ride a motorcycle anyway so I suppose it was founded in something.
"It was [the best kept secret], it was amazing – but I didn’t take it entirely seriously until l we actually got there and I realised how serious it was. It was great that we did it and it paid off, but it was a bit of fuss."
Rhona will come face-to-face with her villainous ex on tonight’s episode, and actress Zoe admitted even she didn’t find out right away that Jonathan – who was referred to as Mark both in the scripts and on his building pass to get on set – was rejoining the cast.
She added: "He knew before anybody. We got coded scripts, nobody was told anything, it was top secret, only the people upstairs knew! I’d started to piece stuff together, I was like ‘What is this? I know something’s not right here!’ "
While Pierce’s future remains unclear, Jonathan has teased the possibility of some more twists and turns.
He previously said: "Well, I can’t say much – he’ll be around for a little bit, and there’s some very exciting stuff to come. But as always, it’s not what you expect!"
Jonathan Wrather disguised for secret Emmerdale return
