When Emmerdale’s Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson) started having doubts about his sexuality when marrying fiancée Gabby (Rosie Bentham), it’s a safe bet to say he probably never imagine he’d be striking up a relationship with a man less than a year later.
It was all the drama in the Dales last year when Vinny started questioning his sexual identity in the lead up to his wedding – resulting in an extortion plot from a man who tricked him.
He went ahead with the marriage, then promptly realised that he’d rather pursue his new found sexuality and the marriage was over before it began.
Not long after, it became apparent that there was a spark between him and Lewis Barton (Bradley Riches). Lewis was completely unaware, but Vinny knew.
In fact, Vinny started getting jealous of his new crush when he learned that Lewis was getting close to a guy called Tony. Tony turned out to be his 50-year-old straight personal trainer, and led to Kammy Hadiq (Shebz Miah) revealing his crush.
A lot has happened in the last few months in the village, although not between these two lads, so Kammy and Ross Barton (Mike Parr) decided to work together to set these two cuties up.
Their plan has been slow going, but now Ross reckons he has the key to making this fledgling romance fly.
Drama kicks off up at Moira’s farm when a tree falls on a barn and threatens to kill their whole flock of sheep. Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) ropes in as many people as he can to help in his hour of need, and both Vinny and Lewis step up.
Working as a team, they manage to save the woolly jumpers, and a high like that is enough to create a little sexual tension between these two.
In a moment of elation, Vinny suddenly kisses Lewis.
Luckily for Vinny, Lewis responds in the way he hopes. With the signs of something beginning, the two of them head home for an early night together.
But disaster strikes for the new lovers – Lewis rushes away after their encounter and poor Vinny is left feeling it’s all over. Does the overwhelm become too much for Lewis, or is he rushing away for another reason altogether?
Discussing the currently dynamic between his soap alter-ego and Vinny, Bradley pondered in a chat with Metro: ‘I think Lewis is oblivious to a lot of things. He’s definitely oblivious to there could be something more, but every so often there’s a little, ‘Ooh. I don’t know what this is.’ Vinny’s got a lot going on, working out his sexuality and his identity and becoming really close friends with Lewis.
‘They both have little romcom moments here and there, but it’s unknown territory at the moment – what is this? We don’t really know but we don’t want to break this friend grouping. It’s unspoken words, we don’t really know what’s happening.’
He smiled: ‘They’re very honest with each other, which I like. Lewis was there when he was talking about the court case and Vinny was there when Lewis was having his burnout, so they’re very honest with their feelings with each other but this is one thing they’re not honest about.
