Joe on life after Emmerdale: 'I'd had enough'

Joe on life after Emmerdale: 'I'd had enough'
Joe on life after Emmerdale: 'I'd had enough' (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Former Emmerdale star Joe Gilgun has admitted he'd 'had enough' of the soap by the time he left. The actor, who played cheeky Eli Dingle from 2006, said there was no more that could be done with his character. Joe, who quit Emmerdale in April, said: "It was dead sad to leave, but it was the right time to leave, certainly. I'd had enough. I think they'd had enough of me and I'd had enough of them. It was time to go." He added: "I don't think there was much more we could do with Eli. He'd done a lot and I was happy with where I'd gone with him and I think they were too so why spoil a good thing?" Joe now stars in Shane Meadows' TV spin-off This Is England '86, having had a part in the original film. The actor conceded that the crew's achievement at Emmerdale is "incredible", but said: "It'd be disingenuous of me to say it wasn't a breath of fresh air (doing the Meadows' spin-off). It's amazing. Nothing compares to the job we've just done." Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

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.