EMMERDALE’S Nathan Wylde – Swindonian actor Lyndon Ogbourne – last night confirmed himself as Britain’s biggest and baddest soap villain.

With his cynical seduction of a hapless and drunken Leyla Harding, played by Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi, he secured his place as one of the characters we most love to hate.

And with blackmail and intimidation to follow, the storyline is shaping up to be the ITV1 soap’s most tense in months.

Lyndon, 26, is currently on a well-earned break in Amsterdam with girlfriend Rhiannon, 24, but he was happy to speak to the Swindon Advertiser about Swindon, stardom and the joys of playing the bad guy.

He also scotched persistent rumours that he and fellow Swindon star Billie Piper were boyfriend and girlfriend during their Swindon teenage days.

“We were very young,” he said, “and we may have shared a young snog at some point, but we were basically mates.

“We used each other almost as support – phoning each other because we were going through the same sorts of things.”

In Billie’s case, early success came in the form of a pop career, while former Lethbridge and Commonweal School pupil Lyndon secured early TV and film roles in Doctors, Spooks and Robin Hood.

Lyndon was with Swindon Young Actors for a decade before training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Acting is in his blood, as grandfather Michael Beint has appearances in shows such as The Sweeney and Poirot to his credit.

In his role as Nathan, Lyndon is becoming one of Britain’s biggest soap stars - and he loves it.

“He’s becoming pretty sinister,” Lyndon said. “It’s pretty scary stuff. It’s good fun seeing the difference between such a nice guy on the surface and a total psycho underneath.

“It’s brilliant for my craft as an actor.

“Sometimes at the end of a shot the director will say ‘cut’ and I’ll say ‘I’m really sorry about that’ because its really disgraceful behaviour.”

In spite of his increasingly sinister on-screen persona, Nathan is a hit among fans, especially female ones. During a recent taxi ride, the driver told Lyndon his wife and daughter fancied Nathan, even though he tried to warn his daughter away from such schemers.

So how is celebrity status suiting Lyndon? “I think ‘celebrity’ is pushing it a bit,” he said modestly, “but it’s very strange to find yourself doing interviews or appearances.”

It can be nice, though. The actor added: “A few days ago I was on my way to the station. There was a family there and the mum handed me a piece of paper and asked me to send her my autograph.”

And what of the future for Nathan? Anything much beyond a week or so from now is an Emmerdale state secret, but we’re promised some further edge-of-the seat storylines.

Lyndon said: “Emmerdale is really coming into its own.”