'Emmerdale': Christmas Day wedding revealed

Could Marlon Dingle be about be about to make one lucky lady wife number four? It seems that way. We can reveal that Emmerdale’s Marlon Dingle, played by Mark Charnock since 1996, is set for a surprise Christmas Day wedding.

Village newcomer Jessie Grant (played by Sandra Marvin) may have only been dating the notoriously unlucky in love Marlon for a matter of months, but this isn’t going to stop her from planning a surprise wedding ceremony for the pair.

Single mother-of-two and local headteacher Jessie will skip the proposal part and begin planning a secret Xmas Day wedding to the completely oblivious Dingle.

But on Christmas Eve, Marlon will suspect something is amiss, only for Lydia Hart (played by Karen Blick) to disguise Jessie’s plan by telling Marlon that they are actually planning for hers and Sam Dingle’s wedding.

Both confusion and tears will ensue, resulting in Marlon vomiting (twice!) and poor Sam being left absolutely heartbroken.

Charnock let us in on what to expect on the ‘rollercoaster’ episodes leading up to and on Christmas Day.

“Lydia has planned it all for Jessie but as Marlon starts asking awkward questions she pretends she’s organising her and Sam’s wedding. Then Marlon lets slip to Sam and it all gets very confusing!” Charnock explains.

And after a boozy Christmas Eve night out, Sam and Marlon spend the night in a van, only to then stumble into not Sam’s but Marlon’s wedding the following day.

Marlon will vomit at the sight of the festivities – but Charnock reassures us this will be more because his character his hungover than not wanting to get married.

“He is overwhelmed by everything, and also lightheaded as he is so hungover! But I wouldn’t take it as a bad omen for the wedding itself, which turns out to be very romantic.

“It’s very colourful and Lydia’s interpretation of an Afro-Caribbean theme. It’s going to be fantastic, the script is really well-written and genuinely laugh out loud funny, very sweet and romantic and a bit farcical! James Hooten (plays Sam Dingle) and I don’t get to work together much so that part of it was good fun and a real bonus,” he said.

While Marlon may not seem like your typical soap opera Lothario, the Emmerdale stalwart has in fact been married three times already.

However, two of his ex wives have perished – he was only married to Tricia Stokes a year when she died after a chimney fell on top of her during a freak storm. And he only got to enjoy three years of marital bliss to his second wife Donna Windsor when she took her own life after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.

While Marlon’s third and last wife Laurel Thomas is still with us, their marriage only lasted a year. Could Marlon’s poor romantic track record spell doom for Jessie?

Charnock doesn’t think so, and thinks Marlon has finally found real love with the headteacher.

“I’ve been here 22 years so a wedding every five years feels about right!” he joked.

“Marlon and Jessie have both lost people, they are vulnerable but complete each other’s circle. Marlon’s romantic CV is terrible in terms of disaster and catastrophe, but I feel him and Jessie have got legs as a couple. And wait until you see the dance sequence in the wedding episode.”

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