Emmerdale on tenterhooks as April Windsor is dangled over the edge of a multi-storey car park after being kidnapped by ruthless boxing promoter Jade.
Putting his full right-hook into rescuing her is Ross Barton, who is played by Michael Parr. A few weeks ago – after a six year absence – he punched his way back into the soap, jumping straight into a bare knuckle boxing drama.
The explosive storyline intensifies with the scenes at the car park, where April’s mum Donna – Ross’ ex – took her own life 10 years ago, is not the only thing to have soap fans gripped – with Michael’s ripped physique in his fight scenes hard to ignore.
Just two years ago, Michael – who took a break from the soap to pursue other roles in the US – was left bedridden by a back injury he feared would end his career. Just months later he was then hospitalised with suspected Legionnaire’s disease, which in one in 10 cases is fatal.
Michael, 38, who first appeared in Emmerdale from 2013 to 2018, told the Mirror: “If you can’t move you can’t act. To go from that to where I am now seems like a miracle.” Ironically, Michael, was trying to keep fit when he crushed a nerve and badly injured a disc in his lower back while working out at the gym.
“It was terrifying; it was by far the worst pain I’ve felt in my entire life. The injury froze me and I couldn’t move,” he says. “I was permanently in bed and bent over. It even impacted my breathing.
“My immediate thought was that I was going to be like that for the rest of my life. “ Unable to walk for a week, he adds: “The panic really set in that I’d done myself some permanent damage.
He was still recovering from the injury when he was rushed to hospital with suspected Legionnaires’ disease, while filming alongside Bollywood A-listers for a new movie in India. Found delirious and hallucinating in his hotel room by a colleague, he was rushed straight to hospital.
He said: “I dropped about 20lb in four days and my cheekbones were starting to protrude. I’d been in my room hallucinating for four days. I didn’t know what was going on. I was delirious. I’m a massive chess player and I was so out of it I kept thinking I was a chess piece.”
As he was massively dehydrated, doctors gave him electrolytes that made him sick and put him on a drip. “Being taken to hospital in a foreign country is always scary, but especially when you can’t communicate with the doctors,” he says.
A fitness enthusiast, growing up in St Helens, Merseyside, Michael played football and basketball and began weight training in his teens, after seeing his granddad with a back injury, also becoming hooked on martial arts at drama school. He says: “Following the injury, I went to see orthopaedic doctors and physios. I went for acupuncture and cupping and I began walking again. I tried absolutely everything. I wanted to get back on my feet as soon as possible.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t still get nervous if I feel a little pain in my back, but as I approach 40, I no longer put my body through the punishment that I used to. You only get one body so you’d better look after it.
“I used to train really hard at the gym, but I tailor my work outs now. I’ve quit lifting heavy weights and I now do a lot of yoga and stretching.”
His fitness has been an asset in his current bare-knuckle fighting storyline, which then sees him wrongly accused by Jade of stealing £10k, before being warned his family could be in danger if he can’t find the money. But when April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) is kidnapped, the real drama starts, as he mounts a heroic rescue bid.
Previously winning Best Actor, Best Villain and Sexiest Male, when he was in Emmerdale, he is delighted that his dramatic comeback means he’s right back in the thick of things. Michael, who has also been in The Long Shadow and Douglas is Cancelled, as well as making films in Morocco and India, was in LA when Covid struck and “burnt through cash,”
“After that there was the writers’ strike. It was bad timing,” he says. Of his Emmerdale comeback, he adds: “I had a play lined up and then Emmerdale called and asked if I was interested. I chatted with them and got excited about the story.”
But while his life in Emmerdale is full of drama, his homelife in Yorkshire is very low key. He enjoys playing chess and prepared for his bad boy role by reading 16th century philosopher Machiavelli’s book The Prince, regarded as a manual for showing tyrants how to manipulate and maintain power.
“Thankfully, the partying days are over,” he smiles. “When I was in my 20s being in a club made me feel good, now it makes me feel old!”
Michael, who previously dated Emmerdale co-star Isabelle Hodgins (Victoria Sugden) is now in a relationship with London-based PR manager Isabelle du Plessis. He says: “It’s a long distance relationship at the minute because my girlfriend is in London and I’m in Leeds, but it works for us. It’s nice for me to go there when I’m not filming.”
And he is preparing for plenty more mayhem and madness as ladies’ man Ross. “I don’t know if Ross is a good person trying to be bad, or a bad person trying to be good,” he muses. “Either way, he’s the complete opposite of me – that’s why he’s so much fun to play.”
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