Emmerdale star Will Ash reveals Ruby's mum storyline

Emmerdale spoilers follow.

Emmerdale revisits Caleb Miligan's ruthless side next week as he heads off for a secret meeting with his mother-in-law.

Caleb visits the hospital to see Ruby's estranged mum Helen, who's terminally ill.

The no-nonsense businessman doesn't show much sympathy when Helen admits that she regrets being distant from Ruby for so many years.

Never one to miss an opportunity, though, Caleb demands a £100,000 bribe from Helen in return for bringing Ruby to see her before she dies.

Here, Will Ash – who plays Caleb – previews the latest drama for his character.

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ITV

How is Ruby's mum introduced?

"Caleb had Ruby's phone following the barn fire and noticed her receiving a call from a withheld number. He answered it and it was Ruby's mum, so he immediately said, 'Look, don't phone this number again' and blocked the number on Ruby's phone.

"Then Ruby's mum phones him instead – she's got his number. She tells him: 'I want to see Ruby. I'm in hospital, I'm dying and I want to see her'. Caleb says: 'No, you can't see her, but I'll come to see you'. That's how it starts."

Why does Caleb agree to see Helen?

"Caleb decides to go to see what she wants. Helen says that she's on her deathbed, but Caleb doesn't know if that's true. He knows Helen has been so manipulative and has behaved terribly in the past, so he just doesn't trust anything that she'd ever say.

"But Caleb thinks that, if Helen is on her deathbed, then maybe Ruby does need some kind of closure with that and there's a potential for sorting it out. As it turns out, that's not what happens."

What is Helen like?

"Ruby and Caleb don't have any relationship with Helen at all. When Ruby and Caleb got together when they were about 17, Ruby's parents really disliked Caleb. They hated him just because he'd come out of a care home, he didn't have any family, and they thought he was beneath their daughter.

"Helen was really snobby and judgmental. She and her husband then gave Ruby an ultimatum. They basically said: 'Look, if you want to be with this boy, then we don't want anything to do with you'.

"So they totally cut Ruby out of their lives. They were quite vicious and brutal in how they dealt with Ruby."

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ITV

Is this the first time they've heard from Helen since?

"Yes, it comes totally out of the blue for Caleb – that this woman wants to get in touch and reconnect with her daughter, having treated her so appallingly in the past. They never expected this to happen.

"Caleb and Ruby thought that Helen, and Ruby's dad, would get old, pass away and they'd never hear from them again because it's been 30 years."

What does Caleb find out at the hospital?

"Helen is dying. When Caleb turns up at the hospital to see her, it's pretty clear that she's not got long left. She's quite resigned to the fact that she is going to pass away reasonably soon. There's a definite clock on it with regards to Caleb allowing Helen to reconnect with Ruby."

Helen tells Caleb that she's now divorced from Ruby's father. How does he react to that?

"It's a big shock because they were such a formidable partnership and it always felt like Helen and the dad against Ruby and Caleb. They felt like they were really tight and they would never split up.

"Caleb has no interest in finding out why they've broken up, though. He certainly doesn't have any compassion for her in that moment, because as far as Caleb's concerned, Helen was as bad as the dad was."

caleb miligan, ruby miligan, chas dingle, emmerdale
ITV

Do they have a row?

"Helen is desperate to have some kind of closure with Ruby, but she's refusing to tell Caleb what it's about. Because Caleb does not trust her at all, he says no.

"Caleb is scared because Helen has always hurt Ruby. Ruby always gets emotional when the family is brought up so it's very, hard for her. Caleb is just going to protect her as much as he can."

Can you tell us more about the deal that Caleb strikes with Helen?

"In the background of all this, Caleb is trying to secure Jimmy's shares in the haulage firm business, but he has a cash flow problem.

"What Caleb does is devious, but he thinks it's for the greater good. He goes: 'Right, if you want to see your daughter, I want some money from you'. The way Caleb rationalises it is that Ruby is never going to get any inheritance from this woman, who has been awful to her, so he's going to make her pay for what she's done.

"It's going to help Caleb, but it's also going to help Ruby because they will buy the haulage firm that will secure their future. It's going to make them a lot of money. So he wants £100,000 in his account and promises to then ask Ruby if she wants to speak to Helen."

Later, Caleb fails to tell Ruby about his secret meeting. Why does he keep quiet?

"Caleb is waiting for the money to come into the account before he mentions anything to Ruby. I think he will genuinely do what he'd promised if the money arrives. He knows he's treading a fine line here, because it could appear very sly and devious.

"Caleb has got to keep it from Ruby. He does feel guilty about it, but in Caleb fashion, he'll try and style it out – very similar to what he did with Kim when he was ripping the Dingles off."

caleb miligan, emmerdale
ITV

How will Ruby react when she finds out?

"Caleb knows that if Ruby finds out he's been to see Helen behind her back, she will be furious. There will be a real question of whether she can trust him ever again. The stakes are massive in that moment!"

Are you pleased that Emmerdale is delving into Caleb and Ruby's history like this?

"It's amazing. It's fantastic for me and Beth [Cordingly, who plays Ruby]. After a chat with the producers, we knew what this past was – that Caleb and Ruby had been thrown together because they were completely ostracised and disowned by her family, and it had glued them together.

"They're just so self-reliant on each other. They've had years of just looking after themselves, and they became very successful with it. We knew that backstory, but to go into more detail like this and what's to come, me and Beth are really chuffed about it."

Who is playing Helen?

"It's Sharon Maughan, who's an amazing actress. She only comes in for two episodes so we only had a day of filming. We had a day of quite intense scenes together in a private hospital room – just me and her going at each other. She was fantastic.

"It's hard to come into any show and do one day and have loads of really intense scenes, but she was fantastic and a force of nature. I enjoyed working with her."

Will this help us to understand Ruby better?

"Yeah, you can totally see where that toughness and resilience in Ruby comes from with how Sharon plays Helen. You can also see where the vulnerability comes from.

"We have scratched the surface with Ruby and she's quite brittle beneath it all because of how she was treated by her family. That's the thing with this backstory now becoming a story in the show – it fills in all those gaps and makes sense of why Ruby is the way she is. It also explains why Caleb is the way he is – how he can be so brutal and ruthless in business.

"You see where the seeds of that were planted because of his own upbringing - being disowned as a child and being an orphan, and seeing Ruby's family doing the same. He has been so self-reliant and self-efficient because he's had to be. That turned into a ruthless streak in him."

caleb miligan, ruby,emmerdale
ITV

Caleb has big business plans for the village, doesn't he?

"He figured out that trying to get Home Farm, and trying to get revenge for what happened to his dad with Kim, didn't work. He's made a bit of a pivot now.

"Caleb thinks: 'I'm not going to get Home Farm. Kim swans around this village and the surrounding area like she owns the place, so I'm going to build a business of my own that's going to put her in her place'.

"Caleb is going to expand it, buy up some land and become more wealthy than Kim in that area and put her in her place that way.

"He's started a distribution warehouse depot – like a mini-Amazon – so he's bought that and that's what he is going to start doing. He's trying to buy Jimmy and Will's haulage firm like a one-man band. He owns the trucks, then they distribute everything. He's got the place where everything is stored as you distribute it, so he's got huge plans financially."

Would you like to see Caleb and Ruby take over the village?

"Yeah, like the equivalent of Home Farm! There would be plenty of opportunity for drama if there is someone competing with Kim in the respect of wealth and status in that place.

"For us as actors, it would definitely provide a lot of opportunity for conflict and drama and it would be good to see what happens with that. Caleb takes so many risks in business, so there's going to be loads of opportunities for him to fail or not fail. It's quite exciting to have that jeopardy so it's going to be a good thing."

Caleb has a vulnerable side as well. Do you enjoy playing those different aspects to him?

"It's amazing. It feels very three-dimensional because on the surface he's bullish and ruthless. He genuinely is unfazed by any threat posed to him, whether it be physical or threats with the business.

"He's very single minded, but if you scratch the surface, there's a lot of vulnerability. There's a big hole in his life where he's never had any parents. He craves that close bond with someone, which is what Ruby gave him. She gave him a family - someone who had his back and did care about him.

"There's a massive vulnerability there and I think it might be similar with the business. He has to put on a front all the time. Whenever anybody throws him a curveball or does him over, he picks himself back up really quickly and takes the positives from it every time.

"It's going to happen again soon. Something happens with Will and he does something not very nice to him, but in one scene he's flipped it on its head. I don't think Caleb can retreat into that vulnerability in business, because if he does, he knows he's finished. It is great to play all that. The writers write Caleb brilliantly and it's a joy for me to play."

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.

Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage

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