Emmerdale's Chris: 'Jai just wants his baby'

Emmerdale's Chris: 'Jai just wants his baby'
Emmerdale's Chris: 'Jai just wants his baby'

Emmerdale's Chris Bisson reveals to Soaplife the pain Jai suffers when Rachel goes into labour and gives birth to their son three months early. As the baby fights for its life, Jai wrestles with his guilt: can he admit to Charity that he's the daddy? The drama begins at the nativity play, doesn't it? "Yes. Rachel starts getting twinges and goes into labour very quickly. Charity doesn't help by saying, 'This is so early, it's dangerous'. Jai immediately starts panicking and it's very traumatic as Rachel is rushed off in an ambulance." Does Jai go to the hospital? "He manages to find an excuse to follow but the hospital won't give information to anyone but relatives - and Jai can't blow his cover and reveal he's the father." So he's not there for the birth? "He has to go home. He finds out he's got a son when he overhears someone talking about it in the cafe." And that's also how Jai finds out his son is fighting for his life... "He doesn't know if his son will live or die, or whether he will ever get to see him." Does he speak to Rachel? "She's not answering his calls. It's a very, very difficult position and in some ways you do feel for him because this is his son and he can't see him. But then what did he expect? He's tried to play this game and keep it all a secret and this is the price he's paying for that. He's been incredibly selfish - he wants the baby yet also wants to keep his marriage to Charity." Ah, yes, Charity. How is he hiding this trauma from her? "Charity knows something's up and eventually Rishi has to give her something so he tells her it's because she won't have a baby with Jai." And what does Charity say to that? "She tells Jai she can't take it any more and she can't live under the pressure of him going on at her to have a baby. She says it's never ever going to happen. This helps Jai make sense of why he's gone through this double life thing in the first place. Obviously, though, what he's doing is very deceitful." Rachel finally allows Jai to see his son after he has an emergency Christening and the boy is named Archie... "Jai goes to the hospital and Rachel says: 'This is the first and last time you'll ever see him'. That completely breaks his heart. The one thing in life that Jai wanted was a child. Now he's got one but he can't have him."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.