So far, John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) has proven himself to be the walking definition of a closed book in Emmerdale.
When we met John last week at his mum’s funeral, Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) was desperate to learn more about him once it was established she was looking at her half-brother.
As a curious Vic questioned John about his mum and whether their father Jack Sugden knew about him, she grew frustrated over John’s reluctancy to open up.
The new face arrived in the village as a result of his van breaking down. Initially, he planned to stick around for a brief period while he waited for Cain (Jeff Hordley) to fix it, but then Emmerdale’s answer to Tweedledum and Tweedledee got involved (Aaron and Mackenzie) and decided to push John’s van into a lake to ‘teach him a lesson’.
This has left John stuck in the Dales. He’s now working at Butlers’ farm with the likes of Moira (Natalie J Robb) and Nate (Jurell Carter), but still won’t warm to the idea of having Vic as a sister and Harry as a little nephew.
Yesterday, Victoria had found one of his possessions while she was tidying up at home and handed it to him. It was a small tin box, which she hadn’t opened. When John lifted the lid to check the contents Victoria was curious to see what was inside.
‘Is that a dog tag? Like from the army?’
John looked strained and confirmed he had been in the army but that he didn’t want to talk about that time in his life. ‘It’s over,’ he said. Beginning to learn that she shouldn’t push him too hard, Victoria left it at that. But after she’d gone, John looked at the dog tag again and we saw the name inscribed on it. It didn’t say John Sugden as expected, but ‘Aidan Moore.’
This new mystery prompted many Emmerdale fans to take to social media and share their thoughts. For some, they believe Aidan Moore is someone John was romantically involved with while in the army but for others, they think Aidan Moore is John’s real name.
‘So is he John Sugden or Aidan Moore? #Emmerdale’, one audience member wondered.
Another wrote online: ‘Ooh Aiden Moore, I wonder who that was. A previous fling of John’s maybe. #Emmerdale 🤔’
The surname Moore does actually have a place in John’s family history. In the 1980s, before John was born, his father Jack Sugden had an affair with a woman called Karen Moore (Annie Hulley) who was an auctioneer’s assistant at Hotten Market.
When Jack went back to his wife Pat (Helen Weir), Karen later became romantically involved with Jack’s brother Joe (Frazer Hines) for a short period.
‘Enigmatic, really’, Oliver said, describing his new character.
‘There’s a lot to him, and a lot of stuff in the initial character breakdown that was hinted at but wasn’t necessarily revealed, because obviously, they don’t like to give too much away too quickly.
‘And I’m still finding stuff out about him, but really, we find out quite quickly that he’s got a military past, he’s openly gay. He is very much a lone wolf. I think over the years, he’s really put walls up and not let anyone in.
‘And that’s the kind of method of self-preservation, I think. So, he doesn’t like people getting close to him, we find out that he’s very self-sufficient. He lives off grid in his van. Doesn’t need anyone, doesn’t need family.’
