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Are there any fans of Emmerdale around? If so, can you tell me why Aaron Livesy’s life in the ITV soap has to be so complicated?
When he left the series two years ago, actor Danny Miller must have been fed up with playing the role of unfortunate and hapless character Aaron in the fictional Yorkshire village of Emmerdale.
Unfortunate gay mechanic Aaron’s life boiled down to a spiral of hard blows which made him embody the stereotypical victim of the series. Fortunately for him, he was not the only victim begging for pity in the soap. But for four years in a row, Aaron’s character suffered and then suffered again. Indeed, we first saw him struggling with coming out to the Woolpack pub patrons, then helping his tetraplegic first boyfriend to commit suicide. ITV soap fans also watched Aaron owning up to a crime he had never committed with a view to sparing his best mate a jail sentence, then moving to France after being found not guilty. No wonder Aaron’s character needed to be given a break from the story!
Misunderstood by the whole village, Aaron had no other option but take to his heels and leave the dysfunctional – yet so likable – community behind to the displeasure of a lot of male viewers who missed the square-shouldered heartthrob. Not only did we miss his square shoulders but also his stubbly beard and piercing eyes! For two long years, LGBT+ viewers were denied the sight of actor Danny Miller in his blue overalls. It was hard, let me tell you!
It wasn’t until last September that Aaron’s character was brought back. What a relief! Many thanks go to Caroline Mitchell – the series’ writer – for giving all the queer fans of Emmerdale the opportunity to go into raptures over Aaron again!
His manly, greasy hands dropping a spanner is enough to make me want to pull over the car on some desolate country road and call Aaron to come and help me make my engines purr again!
Actually, it seems viewers’ fantasies are not that estranged from the series writer’s, as this is exactly what Aaron’s new fling – Robert Sugden in the series – did in order to catch the mechanic’s attention in the last episode. Being torn between his wife-to-be Chrissie and Aaron’s powerful assets, Robert doesn’t know where he stands.
So, is Aaron heading for a series of setbacks again? If so, LGBT+ viewers should remind ITV that the pursuit of happiness should be every man’s ideal, shouldn’t it? If the series producers have difficulties in making Aaron a fully-fledged and fulfilled homosexual character living in the Yorkshire dales, they can count on thousands of viewers across the country to provide them with all sorts of ideas – even the most fanciful ones.
