When Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) got his daughter April (Amelia Flanagan) back in Emmerdale after she went missing at Christmas, he hoped that would be the end of the ordeal the family had been through.
Unfortunately things have been difficult ever since. April’s ordeal – living on the streets and in a squat, seeing her friend get killed and giving birth to a stillborn baby – has changed her and how she relates to Marlon. ‘All we see is sadness and rage, frustration and confusion,’ as Mark Charnock told us.
In his efforts to keep April safe, Marlon has continually done the wrong thing. When April’s friend from the squat, Dylan (Fred Kettle), turned up Marlon framed him by planting ketamine on him, worrying about Dylan’s influence in his daughter’s life.
In upcoming episodes Marlon admits his actions, telling April that he framed Dylan. He also shows her a letter from Dylan proving he still cares about her. April’s furious and upset, and takes drastic action.
‘She fakes an overdose to teach them a lesson, which is so horrifying,’ Mark said, going on to describe the scene that unfolds.
‘Marlon walks in, and on the floor he sees his daughter with what appears to be a used ketamine vial next to her, and the horror is total and instantaneous,’ he explained.
‘After everything they’ve been through – Dylan’s overdose, April’s disappearance – for all the world it looks like she’s dead. He thinks that she’s not quite dead, he’s screaming about getting help and then she sits up and says “That’s what karma feels like.”’
Absolutely savage – but April’s actions finally get through to Marlon in a way that nothing else has.
‘It’s awful. it’s a really good piece of drama, it’s an awful thing for a parent to have to go through but I think what they’re doing is they’re showing the extent to which their trust has been broken and it is a real turning point,’ Mark reflected.
Even so, Marlon has one last attempt at trying to control the situation when he plants a tracking device in April’s coat. When Rhona (Zoe Henry) finds out what he’s done she tells Marlon he’s gone too far.
‘I think it’s just emblematic of how terrified he is and will continue to be that he still can’t just let her live her life, he has to know where she is because the idea of losing her again overrides the understanding,’ Mark told us.
‘I sort of get that, the utter terror of losing her again, but it’s still a clumsy thing to do and again, he realises quite quickly when he’s told off about it when Rhona gets a bluetooth notification that he has to explain.
‘Once he confesses about the tracking device, that’s when we might begin to see things change properly. I think he’s at a point where he knows he has to, otherwise they’re never going to get anywhere.
‘He keeps building walls around her and he just has to stop building walls and he has to trust her.’
