Emmerdale star Jason Merrells: Charity and Declan's marriage "can only end badly" - spoilers

"It can only end badly, which is a shame because they’re really quite similar," the actor told RadioTimes.com at the TV Choice awards. "When Emma Atkins and I started this journey together, we said that it was a Macbeth story. They're a tragic, passionate couple that go wrong. In other circumstances, maybe if they'd met 20 years earlier, then things would have been different."

The soap's current storyline has seen Charity trying to hide a secret abortion from her husband, having blamed the loss of her baby on a miscarriage following a quarrel with Declan's sister Megan. Now Merrells has promised that some kind of retribution will be meted out for all the deviousness at Home Farm. "You can expect drama, a lot of surprises and some payback," he said of this autumn's storylines.

Emmerdale, of course, has a recent history of creating a grand spectacle in October: 2012 saw the 40th anniversary live episode that featured the killing of Carl King, while last year's action featured Cameron Murray taking hostages at the Woolpack. And it seems that 2014 will be no exception:

"I think soaps become a very different animal over the last 10 years. Part of the appeal is doing these big set-pieces that are kind of like movies. All of the soaps are doing them. And I think that Emmerdale are good at it. It’s fun," he said with a grin.