Emmerdale boss Kate Oates has hinted that Val Pollard’s son Paul Lambert could be back in the village for more than just a guest stint.

Paul, played by Mathew Bose, will pop back up in the ITV soap when mum Val (Charlie Hardwick), who is HIV positive, is taken to hospital after collapsing because she is not being careful about her health.

According to Digital Spy, executive producer Kate said: “If anything is going to bring home how ill Val is, then it’s going to be the return of Paul. It was really nice to have Mathew back and I know that he really enjoyed it.

Emmerdale
Paul Lambert, far right, returns to Emmerdale next week (ITV)

“It’ll be interesting to see how the viewers respond to that and whether there’s something a bit more permanent on the cards. He’s got so many great links to characters like Rodney, Nicola, Bernice and Diane. When you’ve got a character who has already got all of those links established, it’s really nice to see them back.”

Actor Mathew said of his return: “I’m really pleased and excited to be popping back into the show. It’s been such a massive part of my own life and my alter ego Paul still has so much of his life in the village. He has relatives and friends everywhere and they’re all in need of a bit of Paul’s love and attention.

“The show, and of course Charlie Hardwick, have been handling this HIV storyline so well and really tackling it, so it is great to be part of that journey.”

Emmerdale
Val (Charlie Hardwick) will collapse at the B&B (ITV)

Kate added that she had thought carefully about developing Val’s HIV storyline: “This story was a bit of a challenge because we wanted to talk about Val’s HIV again and get her to a position where she is going to start using meds. I was rightly concerned by this story because what we show is Val having a bit of a blip and a panic. She is taking a couple of backward steps in how she views her status.

“I didn’t want that to undo the good work we’d done about challenging some outdated myths about HIV. I hope it shows that Val is only human and these things do take time to come to terms with.

“Val has a near-death experience but she will work through that with the use of meds. It has meant that we can talk about the storyline again and look at a different phase of it, but hopefully what we’ll show is that she overcomes that challenge.”