Ex Emmerdale star Joe Gilgun joins Misfits cast

Ex Emmerdale star Joe Gilgun joins Misfits cast
Ex Emmerdale star Joe Gilgun joins Misfits cast (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

Former Emmerdale star Joe Gilgun has been cast as Robert Sheehan's replacement in Misfits. The actor, who played Woody in Shane Meadows' award-winning film and its TV spin-off This Is England '86, is set to play new character Rudy in the third series of the hit E4 show. It has previously been announced that Robert, who played Nathan, an ASBO delinquent who learns he's immortal, was leaving the show after its second series, to be replaced by Rudy, the new kid reporting for community service. Before the third series starts, Robert will appear in an online episode explaining Nathan's departure from the show. Joe, who played Eli Dingle in Emmerdale, will then appear alongside series regulars Lauren Socha, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Antonia Thomas and Iwan Rheon in the third series which boasts eight episodes rather than the usual six. An E4 spokesperson said: "New kid on the block Rudy gets a rude awakening in his first few days of community service, learning that with the keys to the infamous locker comes a great deal of running and screaming and, in some instances, blood-letting. "But that really is the least of his worries. More pressing is just how to keep his secret superpower, well, secret. And is it super?" Joe won't be totally unfamiliar with his new cast mates - as he appeared alongside Lauren's brother Michael in This Is England '86.

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.