Emmerdale newcomer William Ash reveals secret connection to co-star – and it goes back decades

EMMERDALE newcomer William Ash has a secret connection to Jeff Hordley.

The actor has joined the soap as Faith Dingle’s long-lost son Caleb and will make his debut on Christmas Day.

ITV

Actors William and Jeff went to school together[/caption]

But far from being nervous about his new job – it’s like a homecoming for the star, whose own career began back in school alongside Cain Dingle actor Jeff.

He told The Sun: “I’ve met a lot of the actors who play those roles before. 

“I knew Lisa Riley from Oldham Theatre Workshop, so it was less daunting having known those people than if I didn’t know anybody.

“Lucy Pargeter, too, I worked with her a long time ago as well. So the people I was working with I had a bit of a relationship with so I wasn’t as scared as probably I should have been.”

Actor Jeff then revealed how he and William go back decades.

He said: “It goes back to our school days. We did a play at school together and then other stuff professionally. 

“We both went to the same school – North Chadderton Comprehensive in Oldham and had a really inspirational drama teacher called Colin Snell, who not inspired us but also Nicola Stapleton, Matthew Dunster, Paul Hilton and then went onto another school with Jonas Armstrong and Jenna Louise Coleman. 

“He’s worked and inspired a lot of young actors. We weren’t in the same class because I’m a lot older – a school generation above. 

“We did ‘Another Country’ and I was one of the sixth formers and Will was a young kid bringing us all tea. It was a really good production, that.”

And William revealed it was Jeff who originally inspired him to get into acting professionally.

“Yeah, it was brilliant,” he added. 

“For me at the age, to come in and see all those lads who were in that play taking acting really seriously was great. 

“It’s fun and that when you are young, but they were really meticulous and were talking about stuff like character in a rehearsal room. 

“I’d never seen that before and it was one of the reasons why I ended up going into the professional because it was so inspiring.”