Emmerdale star Mark Charnock has defended his character Marlon Dingle’s response after learning that his daughter, April, had been roped into Ray and Celia’s drug dealing

and human trafficking scheme. After fans questioned why Marlon and his wife Rhona hadn’t done more to stop Ray and Celia, when they could have asked Cain for help,

Charnock noted: “The thing about this storyline, more than any other, really, is the powerlessness that the parents and people involved are victims.

“They just have no power. It’s very easy to say, ‘Well, you should just batter them,” but it really doesn’t work like that. These people have no fear of doing the worst things to you. You can’t stop them, unless something very unusual happens. They will kill you.

“No matter how hard your relatives might be or how hard you might try physically to resist them, it doesn’t matter. You are the ultimate victim in this situation.”

Calling the storyline a “horrible nightmare” for Marlon, the actor added: “It links back to that powerlessness, to have no say in the hell that she’s found herself in, to have no ability to wrench her out of that, and to know it, to be sort of it, to be demonstrated to you, that you actually can’t do anything. It must be the most appalling sort of purgatory.”

Next week, Emmerdale will air five special flashback episodes, which will finally reveal who killed Ray Walters. While the character was killed off this month, just days after he’d murdered his own mother, Celia, the identity of his killer has been kept a mystery. And with a growing list of potential suspects, the possibilities are endless.

Kicking off on Monday, 19 January, each flashback episode will take viewers back to the day of Ray’s death, offering contrasting perspectives on his final moments.

The first is expected to hone in on Laurel, while the second (Tuesday 20) will focus on April’s stepmother, Rhona. Meanwhile, the third (Wednesday 21) centres on Marlon’s experiences.

With the identity of Ray’s killer set to be confirmed on Thursday 22, the following episode on Friday 23 will explore the aftermath of Ray’s murder, while revealing who hid his body in Jai Sharma’s van at Caleb Miligan’s depot.