Jason Merrells
Jason Merrells has begged 'Emmerdale' bosses to make his character "as ruthless as possible".
The actor's alter ego, Declan Macey, will be arrested this week for covering up the discovery of a body on his land and Jason is keen to see the land owner pushed to the brink as his situation grows increasingly desperate.
He said: "It depends on how the writers want to twist things but I would like to see Declan go down slowly and fighting.
"After his wife Katie left, Declan became a much darker character, and as things are beginning to crumble around him he becomes more desperate and underhand.
"He gets far more ruthless.
"I think he always had that potential but as all of his financial problems build up his behaviour gets more extreme.
"I am definitely in favour of that because I think it'll be interesting to see him pushed as far as possible and resort to desperate measures.
"There is a fair bit of scope for us to move things around and be creative on set. So I will be suggesting that we make Declan as ruthless as possible."
Police initially believe Declan has been trying to cover a murder, but he hid the body because he is concerned it would mean the cancellation of the festival, leading to further financial problems - and when the event is scrapped, his situation gets more desperate as the insurance company refuse to pay up because the site is a crime scene.
Jason told The Sun newspaper: "Declan is forced to go to Jai looking for financial help but Jai is not having any of it.
"Everything is starting to stack up against him and, whether he can turn things around, we don't know.
"In future episodes, Declan will realise that his only options are to sell Home Farm or sell some properties in the village.
"He chooses the second option, so we'll see what happens and how the villagers react to it.
"Declan is pretty raw at the moment, like a cornered animal. It's good to explore."