Emmerdale star Simon Lennon on Ben catching out Meena

Emmerdale spoilers follow.

Emmerdale's Ben Tucker finds himself in a dangerous showdown with Meena Jutla next week after uncovering an incriminating clue.

When Ben snoops around The HOP in search for evidence that would clear his name over the recent bridge collapse, he stumbles across the damning video footage which shows Meena (Paige Sandhu) trying to drown Victoria Barton.

Ben is quickly rumbled by Meena, who reveals her true twisted nature as she tries to retrieve the camera from him. However, for once, Meena's plans backfire as she slips during the row and is knocked unconscious.

Simon Lennon, who plays Ben, recently chatted to Digital Spy and other media about the scenes.

Is Ben shocked that Jai has tried to blame him for the rope bridge collapse?

"Yes, definitely. What Ben prides himself on is responsibility and professionalism. During Super Soap Week, Ben was consistently trying to do the right thing. Now that everything is being put on him, there is a huge annoyance and frustration.

"There is also anger there, with the lack of power to be able to do anything about it. It really builds to a point of frustration for Ben."

Ben was one of the supervisors that day, so does he feel any guilt?

"He does, but the things that are pinned on him were not his responsibility. The things that went wrong were problems he wouldn't necessarily have been able to prevent. But he's still thinking: 'What could I have done, should I have checked this or that?'

"As Ben has signed the health and safety documents, his name is on everything. So the buck stops with him, which is very unfortunate."

Can you tell us about Ben's attempts to clear his name?

"Everything lies within the HOP and The Hide. Anything that could prove his innocence is in there. So what Ben wants to do is find any key piece of information that proves he's innocent and this wasn't his fault."

ben tucker and aaron dingle in emmerdale

ITV

How does Ben feel when he finds the footage showing Meena trying to drown Victoria?

"I think it's confusion in that moment, because the footage he finds is blurred. It's not concrete, so he's searching for a second opinion to try and cement what it could be or who it could incriminate."

Why does Ben turn to Billy for help?

"They had a bit of a partnership during Super Soap Week, which was lovely. It was great to work with Jay Kontzle, who's a friend in real life as well. They had a lovely bond and camaraderie, but they've since come to loggerheads because it's the question of who's to blame for what happened.

"By this point, there's been an altercation between Ben and Billy about blame and responsibility. But ultimately when Ben finds this information, the only person he can really go to in that time of need is Billy. Sadly, he doesn't get through to him."

Liv turns up drunk at The Hide, after hitting the bottle again. What happens?

"Liv becomes increasingly more volatile. She is really quite aggressive towards Ben. She rocks up at The HOP whilst Ben is upstairs sifting through things. She's smashing bottles downstairs and there's alcohol everywhere.

"Ben comes down and she's drunk, so he just asks her to leave but she comes back again and is feistier and more aggressive. It leads to a bit of an altercation between them physically, which isn't nice at all and only progresses the divide between them."

ITV

Then Meena turns up, after hearing about Ben's discovery from Billy. Is Ben frightened of her?

"I don't think so. Something I think people forget is, whilst there is goodness in his heart, one of the first lines Ben ever had in Emmerdale was to Aaron and it was: 'Stay away from me, yeah? These days I hit back'.

"That's always rung true in the back of my mind when playing Ben. Whilst he is a really good person and he wants the best for people, he's an outdoors man. He's a physically strong person and doesn't take nonsense from anyone. He'll happily fight his corner and happily stand his ground. I think that's quite important."

Can you tell us about the moment when Meena slips and falls?

"There is a switch within the relationship of Ben and Meena where they're chatting and talking about the piece of evidence. There's no suspicion within there until Meena begins to belittle Ben verbally and questions his intelligence, to the point where there's a mutual acknowledgement within the look between them that this might go wrong.

"They get into a bit of a scuffle over the evidence and Ben gets away, luckily. But Meena gives chase. As they are in pursuit of one another, Meena falls in The Hide amongst all the residue of alcohol that's been left by Liv smashing everything up.

"Meena hits the floor hard and it's that moment where Ben is left between a rock and a hard place. Does he help her? Does he go? Does he run and speak to people? Does he ring an ambulance? We're left in that moment of conflict and what is best to do next."

meena jutla unconscious on the floor in emmerdale

ITV

Could this change everything for Ben?

"Suddenly we're in a moment where Ben could absolutely do the wrong thing and it's whether he leads with those impulses. The whole night is a build-up of altercation, argument, frustration and physical wrestling a lot of the time, so it leads to that moment of sink or swim.

"Ben knows now that Meena is a threat and things have started to make sense in terms of other people that have been hurt. I think that's the moment where Ben realises the only way out is to fight his way out."

Is Ben worried that people will think he tried to harm Meena, when in fact it's the other way round?

"Yeah, 100%, because as we've learnt from the recent drama at The HOP, your word is as good as nothing when trying to plead your own innocence! So if something bad happens to Meena, what does that mean for him and how would he prove his innocence?"

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays.