John played Reverend Ashley Thomas between 1996 and 2017 (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Ex Emmerdale star John Middleton has hit out at the soap’s reliance on ‘stunt after stunt’.

The 69-year-old played Reverend Ashley Thomas in the ITV soap opera between 1996 and 2017, before returning briefly in 2018.

While Emmerdale is marking its 50th anniversary with a week of special episodes, John has claimed the soap is close to collapsing and getting axed.

‘You have to be very, very careful, and I think it’s the big mistake that Brookside went down, they went after stunt after stunt after stunt,’ John said, about the Channel 4 soap which lasted until 2003.

He continued on the Soap From The Box podcast: ‘Eventually, your audience is tuning in to watch a stunt, and then that’s it, then they go away.

‘You’re aiming for a young, but very fickle audience, you’ve done your stunt and then they go off and watch something else.

‘What you need is a loyalty to the characters because that’s what brings you in and actually that’s what develops your understanding of drama and what it’s about.’

Chris Chittel, who currently plays Eric Pollard in Emmerdale, opened up about the change in storylines, calling them ‘sensationalist’.

‘The biggest change is the topic of storylines, they’re all sensationalist, which is a shame.

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‘We have to look at life and be able to reflect it to do our jobs.

‘And life as we see it now, hells bells, you daren’t cough, walk in the street because there’s a death.

‘But life is not like that,’ he added.

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John played Reverend Ashley Thomas.