Emmerdale villain Ben Addis announces TV comeback after tragic Lydia scenes
Former Emmerdale star Ben Addis, who played villain Craig Reed in the ITV soap, has bagged himself a role in upcoming TV series Paris Has Fallen, which will be released this month
Emmerdale star Ben Addis has landed a role in a major TV series following his exit from the ITV soap last year. Ben portrayed villain Craig Reed in Emmerdale, who was introduced as an old friend of Lydia Dingle (Karen Blick).
Craig reconnected with Lydia after spotting her a jobs fair and they soon formed a friendship. However, Craig raped Lydia in a harrowing storyline, which saw Lydia struggle to cope.
The villain later got his comeuppance, with Cain and Sam Dingle attacking him before he then met a grizzly end thanks to Kim Tate’s horse, who kicked Craig in the head. The character’s final scenes aired in October 2023.
Soap villain Craig was an old pal of Lydia Dingle in ITV’s Emmerdale ( Image: ITV)
Ben, who also appeared in Hollyoaks, is now due to star in upcoming TV series Paris Has Fallen. The show is a spin-off of the popular Has Fallen film franchise, which began with Olympus Has Fallen. The other films in the franchise are 2016’s London Has Fallen and 2019’s Angel Has Fallen, with the fourth film, Night Has Fallen, yet to be given a release date.
However, TV series Paris Has Fallen will be landing on screens from 23 September. The show will be available to stream via Canal+ and it will also be released on Amazon Video.
Listed on IMDb, we’ll see Ben portray a character listed as Oscar. He’ll star alongside Tewfik Jallab and Rity Arya, as well as Ana Ularu, Camille Rutherford, Jérémie Covillault, Emmanuelle Bercot, Karl Collins, and Nathan Willcocks. The series was created and written by Howard Overman, with episodes directed by Hans Herbots and Oded Ruskin.
Actor Ben has landed a role in a new TV series ( Image: ITV)
Paris Has Fallen tells the story of a political conspiracy which threatens the safety of France and its allies. It follows terrorist leader Jacob Pearce as he targets top French politicians, threatening to expose their dark secrets. When Jacob attacks a high-profile political event, protection officer Vincent Taleb teams up with MI6 agent Zara Taylor to scupper his plans.
Things get complicated as Vincent and Zara realise the enormity of Jacob’s plans and soon suspect one of their colleagues in the security services is feeding him information. With Jacob always one step ahead, and Vincent and Zara struggling to treat their team, it remains to be seen how things will pan out.
Paris Has Fallen will be the first of the Has Fallen franchise to not feature Gerard Butler, who stars in the films at Mike Banning. While he won’t star in the TV series, he is set to reprise his role in three further feature films.
