Emmerdale's Ash Palmisciano reveals Matty's fears as he's outed as transgender in prison

Samson has been threatened by Josh into backing up his version of events, leaving Matty's wife Amy (Natalie Ann Jamieson) and mum Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) desperate to clear his name.

Meanwhile, Matty has revealed to his cellmate, Les, that he is trans, and found unexpected acceptance and support. When Matty tells Amy that he has a confidant behind bars, she is thrilled. But when another prisoner approaches Amy after the visit, she mistakes him for Les, and accidentally exposes Matty's identity to the wrong person!

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Palmisciano explained: "It's the worst possible thing that could have happened to Matty; he just thought he was on the cusp of getting a hold of it and surviving, and he was going to be alright.

"And now he's been outed by his wife, which is unbelievable, and I think Matty thinks at first, there's absolutely no way that she would tell him on purpose, so what has [Robbo] done to her?

"He's quite protective over her at first; but also when you're in a cell, you have a lot of time in your head, the only thing that you can do is think. I think he's going round and round and round about why this has happened, and what's going to happen next."

Describing how the drama unfolds, the star was full of praise for the actor involved, who puts on quite the show as Matty faces his biggest fear.

"They have this conversation where Robbo makes it obvious that he knows who Matty is, without saying it. And you can see, the penny drops within Matty: 'How has this got out? What is about to happen?'

"The actor that played Robbo is called John, and he played such a menacing stillness, it was all about the tension, it was all about the build-up of 'What's he gonna do with this information? What's he gonna do next?'. And it could have been anything. He's toying with Matty, basically, and sort of enjoying that as well. That was really sad to play, but really exciting from an acting point of view, as well. It was really, really terrifying, to be honest, to put myself in that position, but he played it beautifully."

Expanding on his experience filming such gruelling scenes, the actor said it's had a huge impact on his day-to-day working life. "It was tough, but it has been incredible; and I think it's been a real insight into a more grittier side, so I've really enjoyed that.

"But obviously there comes a lot of negative emotions with it like fear, crazy levels of anxiety, and to put myself in that situation was obviously challenging. When you've spent a full day in prison, you sort of come home and feel a bit bamboozled, really!"

Matty's ordeal marks the first time a regular, transgender soap character has spent time in prison. And Palmisciano told RadioTimes.com and other media that he's glad Emmerdale chose to give his alter ego this important storyline.

"It's been really fun as an actor to do. It feels a real first, to be honest. I don't think we've ever seen this on, definitely not on a UK soap before. I think a little representation on UK TV if any; so it feels a real privilege from an actors' point of view, to be able to tell a story that's kind of untold.

"We don't really know that world and what that looks like, so that's been really great. Also for me, I've spoken personally to a few lovely people on the call before about, for me, what it means to play just a trans character out there, let alone dealing with such a difficult, major story.

"It feels really great to be able to recycle, perhaps, my own instinct feelings into something that people can really get behind," he continued. "It feels fantastic to be able to play this role, and it would have been a story that, as a kid, I would have been interested in watching and seeing what it was like. Hopefully it being a story that is really about humanity, and about someone that doesn't deserve to be somewhere, and hopefully people can really resonate with that character."

On how prison may affect Matty's life in the future, the actor is cautious but hopeful. "I think as humans, whatever happens in our lives always affects us, and something as traumatic as going to prison, when you're innocent as well, that's an important thing to think about; when you've been so wrongly judged, to come out of that unaffected would be really rare. So there is going to be, obviously, an impact on his life going forward. It's going to change perhaps how he is.

"But also it's going to teach him a lot of resilience; I think he's already got a bit of resilience about him, he's the only trans character in the village, and he's had to go through quite a lot to get to where he is anyway. So adding this experience to him, it's really exciting to think what character he's going to become."

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Emmerdale airs Monday to Friday at 7:30pm on ITV1. Stream on ITVX.

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