Emmerdale legend targeted by vile abuse as he appeals for urgent help
Marlon Dingle has been desperately looking for his missing daughter April Windsor since Christmas Day and Emmerdale spoilers have confirmed what's next for the heartbroken father
Emmerdale favourite Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) is targeted by vile online abuse in upcoming scenes of the ITV soap as he launches a desperate appeal to find his missing teenage daughter.
April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) vanished on Christmas Day and her father and the rest of the family have been desperately trying to find her ever since.
Marlon is determined to continue with the quest to find April and is convinced by those close to him to film an appeal video which ends up going viral and Mary Goskirk (Louise Jameson) tries to hide Marlon from the vile hate messages that are flooding in.
When Marlon learns of them he is left considering deleting the appeal video wishing he’d sorted proper advice before embarking on it. Eventually, Marlon puts his foot down and decides not to delete the video. He and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) stand united despite the online aggression.
When devising and researching the storyline, Emmerdale worked closely with Missing People to give this storyline a realistic and authentic depiction. Emmerdale Producer, Laura Shaw, commented: “Marlon has recently been struggling with his relationship with April but never imagined he would be in such a heartbreaking situation this Christmas.
“In the coming weeks, as the search for April intensifies, we explore the emotional turmoil a family faces when a young person goes missing. We are so grateful to the charity Missing People for their invaluable help and support with this storyline.”
Kate Graham, Head of Communications at Missing People said: “It has been an amazing experience to work with Emmerdale on this important storyline. The researchers were clear from the start that they wanted to ground the storyline in reality and in no way glamorise it.
“Everyone at Emmerdale, including the actors, have impressed us with their understanding of a very difficult subject matter, meeting with our team of experts, asking very relevant questions and really immersing themselves in the experience of both being missing and homeless, and also being the parents of a missing teenager.
“We hope that as viewers watch this story unfold they are able to gain some understanding of what families with a missing loved one go through and why our charity exists to support those families, as well as anyone thinking of being missing, or anyone already away from home.”
Elsewhere in the village, Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) is overwhelmed and stressed but Sarah Sugden (Katie Hill) feels ostracised to see him socialising with his new medical students friends and embarrassed when they clock she was the drunk patient in A&E.
Jacob feels guilty as they berate her. After apologising Jacob and Sarah seem to be back on track and even spend the night together but is this just a one night or does the relationship have a future? Meanwhile, struggling with his maths homework at the cafe, Arthur gets some unexpected help from Anthony.
Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 at 7.30pm and available to stream from 7am on ITVX
