Emmerdale star Mark Charnock teases Marlon Dingle's future in 'never done before' story

Mark Charnock has teased a "never been done before" story for Marlon Dingle on 'Emmerdale'.

The 55-year-old actor, who has played Marlon on the ITV soap since 1996, has revealed his character will be pushed to his limits in his next story arch, as he and wife Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) grapple with their responsibilities when Lucy brings over the newly-born Ivy, who is Rhona's biological daughter.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, Mark said: "From Rhona's point of view, she has this undeniable biological connection [to the baby] that she can't deny.

"Marlon, has finally got to a place where after all this searching he's finally got this perfect family unit. He's been very ill, he's got past that, and finally they're in this place we can move forward now. And then this thing happens.

"Even though he worships the floor she [Rhona] walks on, he's going to find it really hard to resolve himself to her obsession. I'm not even sure this story has been done before this way and it feels like we're on the cusp of something.

"The cracks on the ice are going to form and go in all sorts of different directions. The possibilities for this story are endless. It's thrilling to be a part of it and to see where it could go."

The soap star has also weighed in on whether or not he believed Rhona and Marlon's relationship can survive this bombshell, and he admitted it could go either way.

He added: "I think so. Who knows? We haven’t had the scripts yet, I might find out next week that they’re not!

"I would hope that they’ve both been through so much each individually that you’d thing being together now they’d be stronger. But something like this is so heavy and so divisive and almost impossible to imagine the connotations of it. There could be any outcome to this story.

"I think Marlon wants what’s best for her, but he’s scared of what having that baby in their lives might mean."