Emmerdale star ‘very upset’ over new plot as character faces ‘unimaginable horror’
Emmerdale actor Mark Charnock has opened up about a new and 'horrible' storyline for his character Marlon Dingle, which happens when his young daughter April goes missing
Ross Barton is terrified to find April Windsor held near the edge of a car park
Emmerdale is set to deliver some gut-wrenching drama as one family is plunged into “unimaginable horror”. One of the soap’s stars has admitted that the upcoming scripts had him “very upset”, describing the plot as both “moving” and “horrible”.
Mark Charnock, who plays Marlon Dingle, said intense storyline will ramp up in the next few weeks.
He said viewers are in for some distressing scenes starting with his on-screen daughter April, aged 15, vanishing without a trace.
Emmerdale’s Marlon Dingle actor Mark Charnock has teased a devastating new storyline is on the way(Image: ITV)
The actor shared that Marlon is set to face a parent’s worst nightmare on Christmas Day when he discovers April’s room empty. Charnock hinted at the chilling nature of the scene, saying “there’s nothing right” about what Marlon finds, setting off a traumatic and “horrible” chain of events for the Dingles.
He said: “I was very upset reading the scripts. Obviously it’s hopefully going to be a moving story but the scripts were so strong, you could see the writer’s personal investment in a lot of this stuff.
“I was speaking to the producers and everybody’s like… it’s huge, isn’t it? It’s a huge thing. It’s the most unimaginable thing. Horrible, horrible,” reports the Mirror.
Mark spilled the beans on the drama leading up to Marlon’s panic, revealing: “So he’s checking her texts because she’s behaved outrageously to family members, she’s been really uncharacteristically rude and a little mean-spirited.
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“He’s going through these texts and he begins to discover information that he had no idea about. She’s trying to get weed and stuff like that, which has shocked him a bit. Part of the problem is he’s this very protective parent.
“I don’t think he’s over-protective but he’s missed the bit where she’s not in cotton wool any more, he’s missed the jump that she’s made and that, coupled with the fact she’s found out about Donna, has just made it a bit more volcanic.”
Mark said the family will have a ‘disastrous Christmas Eve’.
“The next morning he opens a present, April’s still in bed, and she’s got him this mug that he dropped not long after he had the stroke,” he said.
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“He goes up – and she’s gone. There’s that moment that I can only imagine, that blank space where she’s supposed to be on that day of all days. It’s not a building horror it’s just like [claps] Full 10. There’s nothing right about that picture, her empty room on that day, no matter what they’ve been through there’s no way that room could or should be empty. And she’s gone.”
On describing the immediate shock, he added: “He wonders whether she’s been kidnapped again. Obviously your brain goes everywhere. But that’s as much as I can say right now. He goes to Bob first and goes to see other family members. Ross. There’s an instant little circle of panic that doesn’t help. It escalates, this storyline, so this is just the beginning.”
