PROFILE OF ED WILLS
by Wendy
photos also supplied by Wendy.

The character of Ed Wills came on the scene first of all when Emily decided to go to a Spiritualist Church to find out if Butch was still with her in spirit. With her went Nicola and they arrived just in time for the service to be under way.

As it as quiet, apart from Nicola being brash, this young, blonde lad spoke up and commented that he could see 'someone' in camouflage and went on to describe him. Emily was entranced by this boy's visions and she was convinced he had seen her beloved Butch and the lad in question who gave this information was of course, young Ed Wills. He went on to say he has had these visions since he was young and he went to the Church every now and then.

With getting the details, Emily and Nicola went off quite content but Nicola of course, she was pushing her friend to search Ed out and typically, just had one thing on her mind. After weeks of looking, Emily did find him and in time a friendship did develop and they seemed to be well suited although both were shy and 'inexperienced' shall we say.

With the friendship developing, the Dingles were not at all happy that their Emily, who was married to their son Butch, was seeing another man. Poor Ed was put through it with the Dingles' and in particular Cain Dingle who thought nothing of threatening him with violence and Ed was not that way inclined. He was a gentle lad and so nice, well, he was rather naive so Cain had power over him.

Ed was heading towards the village on one occasion and Cain almost dragged him into the van and was threatening him once more and told him to keep away from Emily. Then he just dumped him in the lane and the poor lad had to walk miles to the village. I am unsure if this was for a job interview but he got there eventually.

The next thing Ed has a job with the Tates' as the gardener and he is enjoying life, his friendship with Emily does go on and although Emily does tend to treat him offhand at times, he is just happy with be with her. Ed went to stay with Jason and Scott at their cottage and would be settled there. He would often go and speak to Seth and he would give advice and he was a fairly good friend to Ed. He would tell him what was the best way to a womans heart and Ed would take it all in.

Emily decides though she wants to take things further and she begins to put pressure on Ed and they were about to get intimate when suddenly, Emily gets up and has hysterics telling him to stop! Poor Ed didn't know where to turn and thought he had done something wrong and with this, she ran screaming out of the cottage.

The next thing Emily is with Paddy and she stays the night with him unbeknown to Ed. It is completely by accident that he sees her coming from Paddy's and it was obvious it was more than a platonic friendship, how could she do it to Ed? With this, he decides to leave the village and before we know, he has left and it was one of the worst feelings I had as personally speaking, I thought he was such a nice, pleasant lad. I guess he was too good for Emily who has proved to be as hard as nails.

The actor who played Ed Wills, James Midgley, he has now gone on to play Shane Ince in 'Cutting It' where he plays a gay hairdresser. Maybe 'Emmerdale' did him a favour in letting him go in a way as he may well develop into a more rounded actor. I still miss him though!

Click here for Paul Berridge's Profile of
James Midgley

See Also IMDB entry for : James Midgley

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