Having joined the soap with Joel’s Max Murray and Vicki’s Alice Haig in March, Ross actor Alex Walkinshaw spoke to Digital Spy about the moment Ross saw what happened to his partner.

“Ross is not there when Vicki is attacked because he’s gone to clear his head after an argument with Joel where he grabbed hold of him,” he said.

“Vicki told Ross to get out and cool off, which he does. But when he gets back to the house, Vicki’s not there but her phone is and things aren’t adding up.

“Then he gets the call to say she’s been taken to hospital. He’s scared to pursue that train of thought [that Joel is the attacker].”

Alex continued: “Ross doesn’t want to believe it because it’s so horrifying and he can’t contemplate it unless he knows for sure. He wants to speak to Vicki and find out what’s what.

“But he is absolutely heartbroken and totally sickened. The woman he loves is in hospital and the person he loves the most in the world could be responsible. It’s a nightmare scenario and will have a massive impact on all of them.”

Saying that his character has ‘been really naive’, Alex stated that Ross has ‘finally started to realise the severity of the situation with Joel’.

He explained: “He was too slow to catch on but that’s because he’s been giving Joel the benefit of the doubt and taking him at his word.

“But now it’s reached a point where Ross is worried sick, and he doesn’t know what to do. I think, like a lot of people Ross’ age, this element of social media is something he doesn’t know much about.”

“He’s not aware that if you watch a stream or a video for a while, the algorithm will flood your feed with similar content, and it can have a massive impact… For Joel, he’s been looking at so much of this content and [has] been so brainwashed by it that his world has become a lot smaller, and Ross has finally cottoned on but it’s too late.”