Steve Marchant

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Villain Overview Gallery

Evil-doer
Full Name	Steven Marchant
Alias	Steve Steve Marchant "Stevie Wonder" Mr. Marchant Stevie "Barbie's boyfriend" Steven
Origin	Emmerdale
Occupation	Managing director of Harm Farm Estates (formerly)
Powers / Skills	High Intelligence Charisma Deception
Hobby	Expanding his own business operations.
Goals	Marry Kim Tate (succeeded). Prevent Kim from implicating him in the horse theft project. Cover up his involvement in running over Kathy Glover (all failed).
Crimes	Conspiracy Theft Fraud Attempting to obtain money by deception Blackmail Dangerous driving Assault Breaking and entering Provocation Attempted murder
Type of Villain	Opportunistic Businessman

“	You've got the wrong person!! Kim should be the one going to prison, not me... get off! [tries to escape] You find her, find the bitch [gets apprehended] Let me go! LET ME FIND HER!!	„
	~ Steve's last words as he gets taken to prison after being convicted for Kathy Glover's attempted murder, as well the fraudulent crimes that his former wife Kim Tate has implicated in whilst she got away scot-free.

Steve Marchant is a fictional character and major antagonist in the British soap opera Emmerdale. He first appeared as a main character of 1996 and went on to serve as the secondary antagonist from 1997-1998 towards January 1999.

In his storyline, Steve is a prosperous entreprenur who became the second husband of the show's main antagonist Kim Tate following the death of her first spouse Frank. He originally started out as an old childhood friend of established character Rachel Hughes, before later becoming Frank's business partner and clashing with the latter's son Chris Tate whilst also trying to seduce Chris' sister Zoe at the same time. Eventually Steve departed in 1999 after he was sent to prison for collaborating in Kim's illict money activities, which she framed him for in the end, and for attempting to kill Rachel's best-friend Kathy Glover after he left her for dead in a hit and run incident.

The character was portrayed by Paul Opacic, who also played Stefan Brent in fellow British soap opera show Coronation Street.

Biography

Steve Marchant was first introduced onto the show as an old university friend of Rachel Hughes. When reuniting, the pair began dating by the time Rachel's husband Chris Tate had grown jealous enough for their marriage to end. As time went on, however, Steve grew bored and went on to deceptively cheat on Rachel with local neighbor Charlie Cairns. Rachel's subsequently awareness of Steve's deception had destroyed not only their dating progress, but their longtime friendship altogether.

By then, Steve went on to work for Chris' father Frank Tate - who promoted Steve into becoming managing director of the business Home Farm Estate. Though Chris was initially skeptical towards Steve, the duo bitterly worked together as instigated by Frank. When Frank unexpectedly died of a heart attack, Steve began to take advantage of his new job as a way of profiting his own benefits - though he rarely felt saddened with Frank's death and was recurrently helped Chris and his sister Zoe with their business issues.

At Frank's will, Steve had surprisingly inherited some ownership of the business as notified by Frank and his ex-wife Kim - whom Steve had begun a fruitful partnership with. As both took advantage of the Home Farm Estate strategies, Steve developed romantic feelings for Kim and sought to marry her. This worked and the pair went on to marry in 1998, despite Chris' attempts to warn Steve of Kim's villainous nature; oblivious to Steve himself, Kim was the one who caused Frank's death by provoking him into having a fatal heart attack in the first place. Despite the two marrying each other anyways, Steve found himself in financial trouble that unknowingly affected Kim's business proceedings as well. Their plight to surmount their dire financial straits continued to grow challenging after their business partnership with young businessman Lord Alex Oakwell ended in disaster; Alex Oakwell caused the death of Zoe's best-friend Linda Fowler before eventually getting killed himself out of the country. Under Kim's subsequent instructions, Steve took charge of a construction project and was consequently assaulted by his fellow co-workers when they treated him unfairly. In revenge, Steve staged the arresting of his co-workers by implicating them for a scam project and reporting the matter to the police.

On the verge of bankruptcy, Steve planned to steal a horse from a local stables and later did the job when Kim slyly allowed him to proceed. However, along the way back to Home Farm, Steve noticed Kim's former stepdaughter Kathy Glover was in the way and deliberately ran her over before fleeing from the crime scene. When Kathy was taken into hospital, Steve tried to suffocate her to death - only to be stopped by Kim, who later used this opportunity to tell Kathy of Steve's hit & run on her. Because of this, Steve was arrested and subsequently charged of attempted murder - along with the other crimes that Kim had incriminated onto him. Discovering his wife's betrayal, Steve vowed to expose her role in his crimes - even though Kim was given bail following her detaining, whereas Steve was remanded in custody.

In January 1999, the couple's trial began with Kim and Steve testifying against each other - the cause of which caused Kathy to uncover Kim's perpetuation in the crime that Steve had committed. On the day of the verdict, however, Steve grew increasingly worried when Kim appears to be running late. The revelation was, however, that Kim had already escaped from her sentencing, whereas Steve found himself framed for the crimes that his ex-wife has committed. The jury found Steve guilty of his crime against Kathy along with Kim's nefariousness, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison altogether. Outraged, Steve protested his innocence and proclaimed that Kim's the guilty party. When being taken down, Steve attempted to escape - however, he was forced onto the ground and was dragged out of court as he was led to prison.

Trivia

• He made a total of 268 appearances throughout his time on the show.