Emmerdale confirms touching scenes as Zak Dingle dies | Soaps

The villagers of Emmerdale come together in the ITV soap this week to say goodbye to Zak Dingle.

Actor Steve Halliwell passed away last December. Earlier this year, Emmerdale confirmed they would be filming a farewell story in which the Dingle family discover their beloved Zak has died.

A few days ago, Cain (Jeff Hordley) left the Dales for Scotland, where Zak was living with Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb). She had previously made it clear that Zak was not feeling well, so Cain went there to spend time with his father.

In tonight’s episode, Cain unexpectedly returns home. It’s a nice surprise for Moira (Natalie J Robb), but she fails to tell her husband that she has received news of an available surgical site for her brain tumor.

Just as Cain takes a shower, Moira receives a call from Debbie confirming that Zak has died.

As the hours pass, Cain works his way through the family to inform them of Zak’s passing. After Cain, Sam (James Hooton) and Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper) spend time reminiscing about their father, the focus then turns to Sam and Cain heading to Scotland to retrieve Zak’s body.

While Chas (Lucy Pargeter) sets up the Woolpack as a place for the villagers to grieve, Matty (Ash Palmisciano) finds his mother and wonders why she chooses to postpone her surgery.

On the day of Zak’s funeral, as the Dingles and fellow residents say goodbye, a long-lost relative shows up at the grave, leaving everyone stunned.

Looking back on these episodes, Lisa Riley, aka Mandy Dingle, told us, “The best part for us, as the Dingle family, was the way this moved through production. From Laura (Shaw), our producer, who has known us for years, grew up with us, and then Peter Kerry who wrote the script, who was part of the Dingles development team all those years ago.

‘Finally, Jeff Naylor, our director, directed the very first episode of Steve Halliwell and Zak! So you threw all that into the mix, it’s so nostalgic! So for us as a family, this was obviously the biggest blessing and we are so happy that it all happened this way.”

‘When you think of Steve Halliwell and Zak’s character, you always think of his love of music. So the team has incorporated his music into this episode brilliantly. Zak’s love for music and nostalgia are all visible to viewers.’

“I have so many wonderful memories of Zak,” said James Hooton.

“I loved the crazy, incredible things we did in the 1990s. One memory is of a crying Elvis doll that the Dingles tried to convince people was some kind of crying Mary Magdalene. It was a doll they stole from a second-hand clothing store and used to make money.

“Another hilarious story that comes to mind is when they tried to send Butch into orbit, which was the most incredible storyline at the time, but we always tried to do it with pathos and believability. We used to laugh so much that it sometimes became difficult to get through a scene.’

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MORE: Emmerdale’s Jeff Hordley details ‘intense and poignant’ special Zak Dingle episode as his death is announced

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