When Mandy Dingle (Lisa Riley) and Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) got back together in poignant Emmerdale scenes last year, it felt like all was finally right with the world.
They’ve always been friends even when they haven’t been together as a couple, but after Paddy’s split from Chas (Lucy Pargeter) in the wake of her affair, and his subsequent mental breakdown, he finally realised that Mandy had always been the woman for him.
And for the first time in a long time, Paddy was happy again. As for Mandy, she was overjoyed to have Paddy back – and Lisa Riley reckoned that Emmerdale fans would all agree.
‘The world needs Mandy and Paddy together,’ she said. ‘It’s what the audience want.’
It hasn’t been entirely plain sailing. There was the time that Paddy failed to stand up for his partner after Mandy was humiliated by a nasty character at the vet’s ball, for example. But for the most part the pairing works beautifully because they are such good friends and they accept each other’s quirks.
Currently the relationship is in the middle of another rocky patch after Paddy and ex-wife Chas kissed after she shared her fears about her cancer surgery. Paddy swiftly realised he’d made a mistake and did the sensible thing by telling Mandy what had happened.
In upcoming episodes there’s some awkwardness when Paddy takes Eve (Bella James) to see Chas and Mandy turns up. It’s not long before Mandy broaches the subject of the kiss.
Chas expects her to kick off about what happened, so she’s surprised and pleased when Mandy says she just wants to draw a line under the whole thing and forget about it.
Has Mandy got the full picture, though? It seems not, as Marlon (Mark Charnock) later lets slip a piece of information that changes everything. Mandy is under the impression that Paddy broke off the kiss with Chas – but Marlon tells her that it was Chas who put a stop to the passionate clinch, not Paddy.
Mandy tries to process the fact that Paddy was obviously more swept up in the moment than he led her to believe – and, what’s worse, he lied to her.
Will Mandy be able to forgive him?
