Aaron Livesy

Aaron Livesy
Emmerdale character
File:Aaron livesy.png Danny Miller as Aaron Livesy
Portrayed by	Danny Webb (2003–06) Danny Miller (2008–)
Duration	2003, 2004, 2006, 2008–
First appearance	24 December 2003
In-universe information Occupation Mechanic Family Dingle family Parents Gordon Livesy Chas Dingle Grandparents Shadrach Dingle Faith Dingle Aunts and uncles Cain Dingle (half) Genesis Walker (half) First cousins Debbie Dingle

Aaron Livesy is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale, he is the son of Chas Dingle and Gordon Livesy. He has been at the heart of many gripping storylines, to being involved with the criminal McFarlane family, then making a pass at best friend Adam Barton and coming to terms with his homosexuality. Aaron appeared in 2003, 2004 and 2006 and again since 2008.

Casting

When Aaron first appeared in Emmerdale it was as a recurring character in December 2003, and was then played by Danny Webb. When the character was added to the main cast, the decision was made to recast the part which eventually went to Danny Miller, who had previously appeared as Kyle Brown on Grange Hill.

Backstory

Little backstory was given to the character, except the fact that he was raised by his father and step-mother, his mother Chastity was never around, and he was born on the 5th January 1992. Due to the fact that his mum was not around, Aaron become a very dark and angry teenager who got into drug dealing and involved with other criminal activities. When the gay storyline came about, it was assumed that there had to be a backstory given whilst the character was away from Emmerdale, but in March 2010 during an episode Aaron talks about his first crush being a boy named Kyle who used to live down the road from him, when Paddy questions him on whether Adam was the first boy he ever had sexual feelings for. Aaron states the fact that he was not in love with Adam, but when he was younger he didn't really understand what his feelings meant, he know he just had to keep it to himeslf, hoping that his feelings would just go away, he replies, "I'm still hoping."

Development

The character was first described as a teenage tearaway and the village bad boy when he re-appeared in 2008, and he even received his own promo video to mark the characters return to Emmerdale. Danny joined the show when he was 17. Violent, angry and always in trouble, his character quickly established himself as the baddest of bad boys in the village, when describing the character of Aaron, Lucy Pargeter who's plays Aaron's on-screen mum Chas relays, "Aaron's an absolute pain in the arse for Chas, but it's brought a great softer side to her. Danny Miller, who plays him, is brilliant. He gives so much and he's only young."

When the decision was made to make the character gay, Danny Miller admits that he was a bit apprehensive, "The producer called me in to discuss the direction he wanted to take the character," Danny recalls. "Being a straight actor and having to kiss another lad, I'm not going to lie, I was a bit worried about it, because it's a great test of your acting skills, and I wasn't expecting it. I'd never even thought Aaron could be gay, he's probably the most unlikely person in the village to be gay. I saw it as a challenge and said yes, but I was still quite anxious about it." Fellow actor Dominic Brunt has described the character as being a homophobic homosexual, But Danny states that he is enjoying the challenges presented by his current storyline, "It's definitely been a big challenge - I feel a big responsibility to get this right and portray it in a way that makes it real, because there are so many lads that are going through what Aaron is going through. "It's been a challenge that I have enjoyed though and I feel like I have made progress with the character."

File:Danny Webb as Aaron Livesy.png

Danny Webb as Aaron

He has also stated that while he loves portraying the character, people often assume that he is exactly like the character. "There are people who think I'm the character but when they realise you're not they warm to you," Miller relayed. "But I do like to go to places that I know and where I can relax - normal pubs around where I live." When delving further into the root of the character, he describes the way Gavin explained the gay plotline to him, "Well, basically he said that Aaron's such a naughty lad and he needed an explanation. There are hundreds of thousands of teenage lads out there who are struggling with it as we speak - they're sexually confused." Danny explained, More than anything - aside from giving a reason for why Aaron's the way he is - it's giving the opportunity to see what teenagers are dealing with out there played by an actor and how hard it is for someone with a lot of pride and a strong character to blurt out, 'I think I'm gay'. Aaron keeps it in so much because he's so worried about what people think of him."

Danny Miller has admitted that he felt "awkward" and "strange" when he filmed an intimate moment with Emmerdale co-star Adam Thomas, who is his real-life flatmate. "I think only from the respect that we live together and we see each other every minute of the day it was a bit strange that I was going in for a kiss. On a couple of the rehearsals there was laughter because it was very strange. He continued, "You'd never think yourself to be in the position that these two are in. Knowing myself and knowing Adam and his long-term girlfriend, he's the last person you'd expect in that position." The producer then decided to cast a new love interest for Aaron, Jackson Walsh, played by ex-Hollyoaks actor Marc Silcock, and then the actors had to share their first kiss, "I was nervous, but I'd only done a couple of scenes with Marc before we had to kiss, which I think was better really," Danny says. "It meant I hadn't had a chance to get to know him and become friends with him first. I found it a lot easier not knowing him that well. I think it would have been hard if we'd become mates and then we had to kiss."

Even his co-star James Sutton says that Danny Miller didn't need advice for the role, even though James has portrayed one of british soaps most popular gay characters of all time, John Paul McQueen, he states. "We've chatted but I've given him no advice - he's a great actor, he doesn't need me to give him any pointers," he said. "He's doing a fantastic job. He's loving it. He's feeling like he's being challenged as an actor."

Storylines

Early Storylines

Aaron's parents, Gordon and Chas, split up when he was very young. Chas left him to live with with his father and he was raised by him and his second wife Sandra Livesy. He first appears in 2003 when he visits his mother. It appears that Aaron resents his mother for not raising him, as he feels like she abandoned him, Chas and Aaron begin to bond all over again, but that ends when Aaron has to return home to his father.

When he visits in 2004, Chas slaps Aaron after she catches him talking to other people about her behind her back. Louise Appleton witnesses her slapping him decides to tell Gordon when he collects Aaron and he tells Chas that they are finished, and Aaron will not visit again. However, Aaron visits again in 2006 but stays longer than expected as he has been in contact with a person who had German measles and this time his step-mum Sandra is pregnant. He eventually returns to Gordon and Sandra, after telling his mum Chas about her partner, Carl King's one night stand with Del Dingle while she, Chas, was in the Army.

Life in Emmerdale

Aaron returns on 28 November 2008 when arrested for possession of drugs. Donna Windsor-Dingle recognises him and tells Chas who goes to the police station. He is cautioned and Chas takes him for a meal. However, he runs away. When the Dingles discover Gordon threw him out after Aaron hit Sandra, they go looking for him. They discover that he was involved with the McFarlanes, a local criminal family, and they rescue him from them. Aaron insists on going home, so Chas takes him but Gordon has packed his bags. Aaron returns with Chas, but is angry and verbally abuses her. That night, he vandalises Gordon's office, but Gordon cannot prove this and Chas gives him an alibi.

After initially clashing with Victoria Sugden, they become friends and on Christmas Day, they accompany Jake Doland, Scarlett Nicholls and Daz Eden to a local lake, which has frozen over. Victoria falls in and they work together to get her out. A few weeks later, he vandalizes Tom and Rosemary King's grave, on the day of Matthew King's funeral and trashes Carl King's house. He later tells Chas that he does not want her dating Carl again, and Chas decides to tell Carl she can't be with him - reversing the decision made only days before. Later that week, Aaron convinces Belle to take the day off school and go with him to Home Farm, where the Wyldes are moving in. Aaron steals from their van, accidentally leaving Belle to take the blame. When Lisa finds out about this, she throws him out and Chas goes too, moving in with Chas's boss, Paddy Kirk, who soon catches him selling animal drugs. When Zak catches Chas and Aaron violently arguing with each other, he insists they return to the Dingles but soon are back with Paddy.

Aaron starts a relationship with Victoria, but he gets extremely angry with her when she taunts him about being a virgin. He and Daz constantly argue about Victoria, with Daz claiming that Aaron has been taking advantage, they even had a blazing row in the garage which resulted in Aaron banging his head and threatening Victoria and the rest of her family, but he does eventually lose his virginity to her. However, he dumps her when he finds out that she slept with Daz.

Sexuality and Denial

In late 2009, Aaron has his eye on Holly Barton, new tenant of Butler's Farm, after getting off to a bad start with her and her family, especially the feud between Aaron and Holly's dad John when Aaron was accused of attempting to burn down his barn. But then things began to look up and after months of flirting, things seem to be looking up between the pair, but then Aaron does something that is so out of character that it shocks him to the very core, he gets close to Adam Barton, Holly's brother, and the two become best mates. On a lad's night out, the two get into a car crash that causes Aaron to cut his head and as Adam is checking it out, Aaron leans in for a kiss. Adam is horrified and pulls away but Aaron refuses to discuss it, telling Adam that he is imagining things, and that he wouldn't do anything like that. However, when Adam flirts with Scarlett Nicholls, and makes a move on her, Aaron is clearly jealous.

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Aaron attempts to kiss Adam

In March 2010, Holly told Aaron that she thought of him as more than a friend after some thinking, and that there was something missing in their relationship and always will be. Aaron realised what Holly was talking about and that she had decided to break up with him, and once they had finished Aaron verbally abused Holly and told her that he was only with her because he felt sorry for her. Aaron is horrified that with Holly no longer being his cover, his hidden sexuality would be revealed. Towards the end of March he takes his first tentative steps into accepting who he really is and goes to a gay bar, he is not relaxed and quickly leaves, in his haste misplacing his phone. It's picked up by another patron from the bar Jackson Walsh, he returns the phone to Paddy and leaves his number for Aaron to call. Aaron is terrified that Paddy will work out what's being going on, but is attracted to Jackson and again goes to the gay bar. This time Paddy watches from the car and is convinced that Aaron has returned to his drug use when he sees Jackson and Aaron exchange something, not realising that Jackson just gave Aaron his business card with his number on it, Jackson told Aaron to call him, especially if he needed a builder.

In an intensely emotional episode, Paddy confronts him about all the strange goings on, and Aaron finally breaks down and admits that he's gay, unable to deal with his feelings he lashes out and brutally attacks Paddy. They discuss what happened and Aaron apologizes, Aaron opens up about his feelings towards Adam, and that the first guy he ever had romantic feelings for was a boy named Kyle who used to live down the road from him, but at that time he didn't realise what his feelings meant. Aaron tells Paddy that now he knows, he doesn't want people gossiping about him. He tells Paddy that he doesn't want to be gay because he hates them, and guys like him can't be gay, he even goes so far as to use the word 'Queer'. He says that he will never be one of them, but Paddy tells him that he can't deny who he is and one day he will fall in love because he won't be able to stop himself. Just as Aaron is about to leave Paddy tells him that he use to be the worst thing about Chas, yet he turned out to be the best, that he loves him, and he is like a son to him, but Aaron's bags are already packed and he leaves the village.

Aaron returns to the village on 29th March, and is verbally attacked by his mother Chas the minute he walks through the door to Paddys, but Paddy sticks up for him and eventually Chas leaves when he denies that it was Aaron that beat him up. Later on Paddy walks up to Aaron's room but Aaron is laying on his bed crying telling Paddy that he is sorry but its all sorted, leaving Paddy bemused. When Aaron eventually makes his way downstairs he makes it clear that its his life and he will just keep on living a lie, he will never act upon his homosexual urges, he would prefer to be lonely than gay because he'd rather a man hate him for stealing his car than for trying it on with him, and there is nothing Paddy can do about it.

The following day, after Chas tries talking to Aaron and is unable to get through to him, she calls the police. The police then question Paddy, but he lies to them saying that he just got tipsy and he doesn't want people to know because he is embarrassed, when Aaron questions Paddy he asks that if he didn't call the police then who did? When Chas shows up later, Aaron and Paddy realise that she called the police and Aaron is outraged. Paddy discusses things with Chas, and tells her that Aaron did beat him up, but she has to just leave it and learn to trust him. When Aaron is working in the garage the next day, he receives a text from Jackson whilst he is talking to Adam, he immediately turns his phone off, leaving Adam confused. When he is in the Woolpack after finishing his shift he bumps into Victoria and tells her that seeing as its her birthday, he has a present for her back at his house, but instead he just gives her a beer and when Paddy shows up, he feels awkward that Aaron is continuing to play it 'straight'. After taking Victoria to the café, he runs into Adam who continues to question him about Paddy's mugging. They have an intense conversation, which results in Aaron admitting that it was him that attacked Paddy.

Fancying Jackson

Aaron’s acquaintance Jackson turns up at the garage because he has some local building work but Aaron quickly hurries him along, and agrees to meet him for a drink later that night, but when he is about to get the bus into town, he bumps into Scarlett and bottles it. He later agrees to buy Victoria a drink in the cafe and whilst they are talking, Victoria suggests that they give their relationship another go, but Aaron apologises for trying to kiss her a couple of weeks ago, and that them being together would be a mistake. When he returns home, Paddy suggests that they talk but Aaron tells him that it wouldn’t be a good idea.

Aaron and Adam organise a lads night in the pub the following day, but Scarlett gate crashes it with her friend Bryony, meanwhile Victoria apologises to Aaron and tells him that she wants them to just be mates. When they get the drinks in Aaron notices Jackson walk in and he makes an excuse to talk to him, and Jackson tells him that by lads talking to each other doesn’t make them gay and he doesn’t have to be ashamed to be seen with him. Later, when Bryony makes it clear she fancies Aaron, he takes her back to his, but when he turns down her advances, she leaves. Jackson then turns up at Paddy’s and asks to come in. Aaron and Jackson get talking and it's then that Aaron realises they have a lot more in common than he first thought, when they begin talking about Jackson and what he felt like when he came out to his friends and family, they share a moment. They both lean in to kiss each but are interrupted by Paddy and Marlon.

Marlon demands to know what is going on, and to cover his own back, Aaron tells Jackson to leave, but on Paddy’s instruction he tries to work things out with him. Aaron tells him that he just freaked out, but Jackson notices him looking at Adam he leaves, telling Aaron that he won’t embarrass him anymore. When Aaron returns, he and Paddy have an angry conversation, because what Aaron doesn’t know is that Paddy has just told Marlon that he is gay. Aaron becomes emotional once again and leaves a voicemail on Jackson’s phone telling him that he needs someone to talk to because Jackson is the only one who understands, and that he wants Jackson to call him.

The next day, Aaron is constantly checking his phone for messages but Jackson still hasn’t called him, so he decides to leave him another message, which again Jackson doesn’t reply to. So that night he goes to the gay club and spots Jackson through the window and he fights his nerves and goes in. When he goes to talk to Jackson he is completely ignored, but in the end, Jackson relents and offers to buy him a pint.

Finally Aaron becomes a little more comfortable around Jackson and the gay bar, and Jackson even makes Aaron smile, but things get strange at the end of the night when Jackson tells Aaron that it’s time to go, and Aaron assumes that Jackson wants to continue the night back at his place, and replies “do you live far then?” Jackson tells Aaron that he has got the wrong end of the stick, but Aaron rushes out of the bar feeling like a bit of an idiot, when they are both outside, Jackson clears the air and tells Aaron that he likes him, but he doesn’t sleep with guys on the first date, and tells Aaron he will see him soon.

See also

• Emmerdale Cast List
• The Dingle Family
• Gay Characters in Soaps

External links

• Aaron Livesy on the Emmerdale website
• Aaron's Confusion on Emmerdale at Digital Spy
• Danny Miller Interview on Emmerdale at Digital Spy
• Emmerdale Gay Storyline on Emmerdale at Digital Spy