April Windsor’s (Amelia Flanagan) missing person saga rumbles on, and Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) is getting to the point of reckless desperation in Emmerdale.
A sighting of April in Leeds bolstered the terrified dad, but all it did was spur him on into a dramatic health spiral.
Toiling away day and night to find his daughter, Marlon ignored warnings of an impending health crisis.
Before he knew it, he’d collapsed on the ground and was being carted off to hospital by Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt).
Marlon had thrown all self-care out of the window in his quest to find April, which led to a severe chest infection and a strong warning from the doctor that another stroke would follow if he didn’t look after himself.
Forced to take a step back from rescue efforts, Marlon is even more desperate.
Against her mother’s advice, Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) posted an offer of an award for £1000, ignoring Mary’s (Louise Jameson) warning that they’ll be inundated with scammers.
Rhona was initially confident she’d done the right thing, but she’ll be left disappointed when it yields no good results.
And when that happens, Marlon takes matters into his own hands. Out of sheer desperation and sick of hitting dead end after dead end, Marlon drastically ups the reward to a level they can’t afford.
Rhona, Mary, and Ross Barton (Mike Parr) are terrified at this latest reckless act. Is Marlon set to face financial ruin on top of everything else?
‘Because the scripts have been so amazing and we have lengthy talks with charities – the idea of that level of loss and abject horror, it’s so bleak and desperate and lost, in a weird way, the extremity of it has made it more direct to access it’, actor Mark Charnock said, discussing this storyline.
‘It’s so thunderously appalling, the situation, you’re not going around ginnels to find your way to it, the endpoint is so extreme that you can see what it must be like for people.
‘Hopefully, it will do some good somewhere. It’s not that it’s not nuanced, it’s just easier to access because it’s so visceral and awful.
