Emmerdale‘s Paddy Dingle makes an enormous decision next week, in order to protect his dad Bear Wolf. When he learns Bear could be facing a life sentence for Ray Walters’s murder, Paddy confesses to covering up the crime.
After talking it through with his wife Mandy, Paddy hands himself into the police, along with fellow witness Dylan Penders. But will Paddy and Mandy’s marriage survive if he is sent to prison?
Speaking about Mandy’s reaction to the confession, Dominic Brunt, who plays Paddy, said: “Mandy is very good. She was away in Ireland and when she came back, she felt that they all just needed to tell the truth and they’d all get off.
“The truth is the best way and they should have done that from the start. Mandy is great and she’s supportive. She’s scared of losing her husband and breaking up this new family unit that they’ve got.”
The actor, who has played the beloved character since 1997, addressed what would happen if Paddy does get locked up, explaining that their relationship would survive the distance as Mandy is “very forgiving”.
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“They’re very, very good at fixing things quickly. They’re so deeply in love with each other so even when Paddy apologises for lying, she says ‘let’s not keep doing that, let’s keep talking to each other’,” he said.
“She’s brilliant – all the mistakes and missteps that Paddy makes, she’s very forgiving. But she’s also very good at saying: ‘If you do that again, I’ll kick your shins!'”
While Paddy could face some time behind bars, Brunt described the storyline as “very serious” but also “really fascinating” to film, adding that even the actors were surprised by the various twists.
“In the middle of it, we didn’t know if we were telling the truth or not,” he remarked. “‘Do the audience know at this point? Do we know at this point? Have we gone back in time? Did we do it? Are we lying?’
“It was just great and they were cross-referencing all of that. Watching it broadcasting and seeing that it all made sense was really great. We’d end scenes and have no idea what was going on, so we’d be cracking up laughing!”
