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Emmerdale’s Bear Wolf actor Joshua Richards spoke to the Mirror about his devastating standalone episode, as we finally find out where Bear is and what’s happened to him

It’s been almost four months since Emmerdale‘s Bear Wolf was last on screen, with Paddy Kirk’s father vanishing as part of a top-secret storyline.

As the troubled character finally returns next week in a harrowing special episode, actor Joshua Richards says fans will be “furious” when they finally find out what has been going on. The last time Bear was in the village he was suffering from mood swings, forgetfulness and appeared depressed, before a bust-up with his son led to him taking some time away.

As Paddy realises his father never made it to Ireland back in July, it dawns on him that something horrifying may have happened. Joshua, 66, has revealed that the standalone episode will flash back to the moment he fled in his car, with fans finally finding out what’s gone on in the days since.

With that, it’s explained that Bear is at the centre of a modern slavery storyline, and Joshua says that anyone can be exploited, even a “strong” character like his own. “I found it a bit disconcerting, really. I found it a bit frightening,” Joshua told us.

READ MORE: Emmerdale fans ‘rumble’ how Kev leaves as cruel lie changes everythingREAD MORE: EastEnders’ Nicola rocked by baby news – but fans rumble dark plot development

“What experience do I have to bring to the table? It was a bit discombobulating at first. Of course Bear has been experiencing this depression and confusion. It’s a great thing to find him so vulnerable – a big strong man being vulnerable and exploited.”

Joshua has been working with the Salvation Army for the harrowing storyline, speaking with men who have found themselves in similar situations to Bear. He shared: “It’s something that you can slip into and if you’ve been manipulated a certain way, and being a certain age as well, where maybe you do think that you’re useless and redundant, if someone convinces you that no, you are worth something, that you do have some kind of currency.

“You can be somehow manipulated into a situation that you didn’t envisage seeing yourself in, in the first place. So it’s quite fascinating how these things actually do happen.” Joshua said the topic isn’t new to him, having appeared in a play in 2007 called Sold which focussed on modern slavery.

He now hopes the storyline has a similar impact to ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which shone an international light on the British Post Office scandal. “I think that soaps do have a responsibility to educate and maybe show things that go under the radar and you may not necessarily see on the main news,” Joshua said.

“I think it’s our job to do that and I’m very proud to be part of what ITV is doing with these wonderful writers and the great research which has gone on. Maybe it will prompt something and there will be action. But then again, we don’t hold hope for any government in light of the other scandals which have gone by and very little has been done.”

Joshua feared his time was up on the soap when Producer Laura Shaw warned him he’d be offscreen for a while. The actor was told he couldn’t cut his hair or shave his beard during his absence as part of the storyline, which went on for around three months.

“I became a raggedy old man while I was off,” he joked. Joshua said it adds to the confusion viewers will experience when they first see Bear onscreen again. “He’s at the real bottom, looking really filthy and scraggly and unkempt.

“Bit by bit we took it away. I’m almost back to where I was before now, but it’s been a very complicated way of portraying various stages in Bear’s journey and very confusing for all of us, because each day I’m in a different time zone or a different part of the story.

“So it’s been quite exciting and quite weird.” Joshua now hopes viewers will spot the signs of modern slavery, which he says “is going on under our noses”. He shared: “Be aware. We all have our cars cleaned and say: ‘Ooh, that’s cheap’. But who are the people cleaning your car? I mean, that’s just a very tiny part of it.

“It’s other things, it’s people who are picking your spuds, it’s people who are fixing your driveway, maybe there’s somebody doing work on your roof. You really don’t know. I mean, there are bona fide proper people – builders, farmers, other people – out there.

“But some are in the dark web of life, there are people who are gangs, who are criminals, who are ready to exploit people. Because the biggest bill you’ll ever get for anything you have done, for example your house extension, the biggest part of your bill is the labour.

“If criminal gangs can take that essence out, that you don’t have to pay for that labour, then that’s where big profits are made, people are exploited and misery begins.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads.

Ronan Keating had to rush to help Rick after he suffered a coughing fit during an appearance on The One Show

Rick Astley has opened up about his coughing episode on The One Show, confessing he feared he might have to “walk off” during the live broadcast.

The 80s icon left viewers concerned when he began choking and spluttering whilst being interviewed on the BBC programme on Friday (September 5), with fellow musician Ronan Keating rushing to his aid by patting his back.

The incident was discussed during Rick’s appearance on BBC Breakfast on Monday (September 8), reports the Express. Presenter Jon Kay joked, “Rick joins us, and you’ve got some water, because you had a bit of a cough, didn’t you, on The One Show?”

“Yeah, I did indeed,” Rick replied. “So exciting to be about to cough your head off on live TV, sat next to Ronan Keating!”

“We do it all the time, so for people who didn’t see it, what happened?” presenter Sally Nugent asked.

The performer revealed: “The show had started and they had done a shot where the two of us are on the couch, so Ronan’s being interviewed and chatting, and I know Ronan a bit, he’s lovely, he’s great.

“And then I just started to feel I had a tickle, and then, so I’m trying to suppress it, you know, having some water and stuff, and I’m clutching my knees, and I’m thinking, I’m about to walk off live television, even though they’ve just introduced me as being on the couch! But we’re all good this morning. I hope so!”

“I don’t know what it was; it was just a tickle,” he continued.

The star went on: “I’ve only cancelled one gig in the whole of my life, and that was because of food poisoning, nothing to do with singing.”

“So, yeah, so hopefully we’re good.”

Jon suggested that even if the singer ever encountered a problem with his voice, the “show must go on”.

“Yeah, but also I think adrenaline kicks in,” Rick responded. “The amount of times that I’ve not been fully match fit, let’s say, a bit of a cold or something, but I think your adrenaline just takes over. The excitement of doing it still feels like the most exciting thing in the world to me.”

“Well, we’ve got Ronan on standby, just in case you need it,” Jon joked, causing Rick to chuckle.

Rick, 59, also opened up about how taking a hiatus from his career had made him appreciate it more.

“I’ve kind of got away from how kind of ridiculous it is and how full of nonsense it is to just view it as a purely beautiful, lovely thing to do,” he shared. “I don’t really ever get wrapped up in the fame side of it, all the this, that, and the other.”

The star admitted that he was “not really famous” most of the time, as he could visit places like the supermarket without being recognised.

“And that’s amazing because I can go and play an arena and then literally be going on the way home or on the way to the hotel and be completely ignored by people,” he added. “Even sometimes the same people who are in the arena.”

BBC Breakfast is broadcast daily at 6am on BBC One.

The legendary investor Warren Buffett is famous for buying quality businesses with durable competitive advantages. Just take a look at one of his most famous holdings: Coca-Cola. Few businesses in the world have Coke’s name brand recognition, or its level of customer loyalty.

One of the best ways to gauge whether a business has a durable economic moat is to look at its margins. Is the company in question far more profitable than its competitors? And has it maintained these elevated margins for years at a time? If so, then that business looks like a potential addition to Buffett’s personal portfolio.

Right now, there’s one chipmaker that is likely getting Buffett’s attention. The margins for this business are simply off the charts.

Warren Buffett probably loves this AI company

Few companies in the world are benefiting as much from the artificial intelligence revolution as chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA -0.01%). At its core, Nvidia is a chip stock. It manufactures hardware that allows modern computing technologies to function. Artificial intelligence is no exception. That industry requires massive numbers of chips to train, launch, and execute its models.

Due to early investment, Nvidia is the largest chipmaker in the world when it comes to delivering chips designed for the AI industry. Many estimates peg it at a market share of 90% or more. Overall, Nvidia’s chips are generally considered superior in various key performance metrics. But it’s really Nvidia’s software platform that creates most of the magic. Developed way back in 2004 and later released in 2007, Nvidia’s CUDA platform — which stands for Compute Unified Device Architecture — allows customers to customize its chips with parallel computing capabilities that tailor its performance specifications to exactly what that customer needs.

NVDA Gross Profit Margin (Quarterly) data by YCharts.

The result of CUDA’s introduction was twofold. First, Nvidia’s chips could be customized to extract greater performance than competing chips. Second, customers became embedded within Nvidia’s hardware and software flywheel. If customers wanted to switch to another chipmaker’s products, they would need to alter both their hardware and software systems — creating critical friction points that keep these customers within Nvidia’s ecosystem for the long term.

The end result is superior gross margins for Nvidia versus competitors like Intel and AMD. And while profitability has dipped in recent quarters due to trade restrictions in China and onetime manufacturing costs for its new Blackwell chips, Nvidia’s gross margins remain roughly double other chipmakers like Intel and AMD. Nvidia executives expect gross margins to move above the 70% mark again by the end of the year as these near-term headwinds abate.

Image source: Getty Images.

Is it time to load up on Nvidia stock?

In many ways, Nvidia is very similar to Apple. Years ago, analysts were worried about Apple’s elevated gross margins. The company, after all, produced mostly hardware. As we’ve seen time and time again in the technology space, hardware eventually gets copied and commoditized, reducing excess profitability for industry leaders.

But Apple’s profitability didn’t dip heavily over the past decade. That’s because the company integrated a huge amount of software into its hardware, offering to keep customers within the Apple ecosystem. There’s a reason many people not only own iPhones, but also iMacs, AirPods, and iPads. Each device works seamlessly together, and switching from one product makes all of your other products less valuable.

The same can be true of Nvidia today. Yes, it produces some of the best GPUs on the market. But its CUDA software allows the company to capture both the hardware and the software side of the equation. Switching from Nvidia’s hardware, therefore, requires a lot more work than just swapping components.

Trading at 58 times earnings, Nvidia stock is far from cheap. But as Buffett has proven over the decades, paying a bit more for a premium business is worth it if your holding period is long enough. If you’re interested in adding an AI powerhouse stock to your portfolio, Nvidia should top your buy list.

EastEnders legend Danny Dyer has revealed he’s planning on following in his ‘hero” Harold Pinter’s footsteps by turning down a knighthood if he’s ever offered the accolade

Former EastEnders star Danny Dyer has shared why he’d turn down a knighthood.

The 47-year-old actor says that he was too “anti-establishment” for the title which are given to individuals by the monarch for a significant contribution to society.

He told Radio Times that he’d follow in the footsteps of his “hero” Harold Pinter, who turned down a knighthood back in 1996.

Nobel-winning playwright Pinter declined the honour of a knighthood offered to him on behalf of the late Queen Elizabeth II by former prime minister John Major, but later accepted the award of Companion of Honour in 2002.

When asked if he’d ever been approached about appearing on the New Year’s Honours list, Danny explained: “Have I f! Harold was my hero and turned down a knighthood.

“He was anti-establishment as well, so I don’t think it’s for me.”

Danny became a household name acting in EastEnders from 2013 to 2022 as fan favourite Mick Carter and has since gone on to star in Disney’s hit series Rivals, Sky comedy show Mr. Bigstuff, and an upcoming Irish film Three Quick Breaths.

It comes after Danny left his daughter Dani Dyer horrified with his honeymoon confession.

During a recent episode of their podcast Live And Let Dyers, the Love Island winner opened up about her romantic getaway with new husband and West Ham star Jarrod Bowen, while proud dad Danny managed to overshare in true Dyer fashion.

Back from her sun-soaked trip to Lake Como, Dani revealed the newlyweds were hit with gloomy weather but still made the most of their honeymoon bubble.

“The weather was terrible, it rained for three days but we were very lucky, because it always stopped raining when we went for lunch and for dinners and stuff,” Dani told her dad on the pod.

While the couple had hoped for some sunbathing time, Dani admitted they swapped tanning for telly, champagne and baths.

She added: “We just could never sunbathe, and there’s not really much to do there so, we just binged the whole series of MobLand. We ate and I’d just drink champagne and have loads of baths.”

However, it wasn’t long before Danny spun the convo onto his honeymoon and things got very a little too honest.

He said: “To be fair, you shouldn’t really be getting out of bed a lot in your honeymoon because me and your mother ended up in Florence, and you know, we was appalling!

“I mean, honestly, I look back on it and I think, ‘f****** hell! How on Earth did I manage to get in those sorts of positions!.”

A shocked Dani responded saying: “Oh, you’re disgusting!” before he hit back with: “What do you mean disgusting? There was two people sharing their love. Them days are long gone now!”

US president says Iranian Supreme Leader’s alleged ‘anger, hatred, disgust’ led him to drop work on sanctions relief.

President Donald Trump has hit out at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s claim that Iran won its recent 12-day war with Israel, also saying the United States will “absolutely” bomb the country again if it pursues nuclear weapons.

The US president launched a torrent of abuse at Iran’s Supreme Leader on his Truth Social platform on Friday, claiming he had saved Khamenei from “A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH” and accusing him of “blatantly and foolishly” lying when he claimed “victory” in the war the previous day.

In his first sortie since the Israel-Iran war ended with a ceasefire earlier this week, Khamenei had also said Iran “slapped America in the face” by launching missiles at a major US base in Qatar following US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.

In Friday’s post, Trump said he had demanded Israel pull back from “the final knockout”.

“His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” he said.

The question of whether US attacks destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities is moot – a leaked intelligence report contradicted Trump’s account of events, suggesting the military’s strikes had set the country back by mere months.

The US president said that Khamenei’s comments, which he described as “a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust”, had led him to drop work on “the possible removal of sanctions, and other things, which would have given a much better chance to Iran at a full, fast, and complete recovery”.

Future of nuclear programme

Trump’s rant against Khamenei came on the back of bellicose comments earlier that day at a White House news conference. Asked whether he would consider new air strikes if the recent attacks had not succeeded in ending Iran’s nuclear weapons programme, Trump said, “Sure, without question, absolutely.”

He said he would like inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or another respected source to be able to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites.

But Iran has approved a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, a move widely seen as a direct response to the strikes.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi indicated on Friday that Tehran may reject any request by the agency for visits to Iranian nuclear sites.

“[IAEA Director General] Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent,” Araghchi said on X. “Iran reserves the right to take any steps in defence of its interests, its people and its sovereignty.”

Grossi said on Wednesday that ensuring the resumption of IAEA inspections was his top priority, as none had taken place since Israel began bombing on June 13.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz indicated on Friday that his country might still be on a war footing with Iran, saying he had instructed the military to prepare an enforcement plan against the country.

The plan “includes maintaining Israel’s air superiority, preventing nuclear advancement and missile production, and responses to Iran for supporting terrorist activities against Israel”, Katz said.

Katz said on Thursday that Israel had wanted to “eliminate” Khamenei and would not have required US permission to do so.