Exclusive: Emmerdale’s Jeff Hordley on Holly Barton’s shock death and the Cain, Charity and Moira love triangle!

I was going 'she can't be dead'!

It was the explosive Emmerdale storyline that left the nation shocked and heartbroken.

Moira Barton discovered her daughter Holly, played by Sophie Powles, dead in her bed following a heroin overdose and fans of the soap were left in tears. We saw Moira turn to estranged husband Cain Dingle for support not realising he is back with old flame Charity Tate.

Jeff Hordley, who plays Holly’s step-dad Cain Dingle, was on the show to reveal all about the emotional episode.

‘It was tough,’ Jeff said. ‘We knew [the storyline] a few months before. When one of your team goes, the Barton family, we were all gutted. Sophie was never going to stay for too long because she’s young and wanted to go on and do other things. We just wanted to keep it under wraps. It’s good that we could.’

As for Cain, he’s back with Charity [Emma Atkins] but will he reunite with his estranged wife Moira, played by Natalie J. Robb?

Jeff revealed, ‘Natalie has been amazing. She’s been a wailing banshee for weeks. There’s all the dilemma of Cain and Charity - will they stay together? I can’t say! The story team have done such a great job because they’ve taken the three of us and done this love triangle. There’s a real camp for Cain and Moira and a real camp for Cain and Charity because there’s a lot of history.’

But we’ve got lots more of Cain to look forward to as Jeff, who took a few years out of Emmerdale, is not planning to leave The Dales any time soon. ‘I left to go and pursue more theatre and do other jobs’, he says. ‘But now I’m so settled with my children and my wife [Zoe Henry who plays Rhona Goskirk) is there are well, it would be silly to up sticks and leave. I’ve got such a fantastic part that the writers keep writing superb stuff for.’

And as Coleen says, ‘We all need a bit of Cain!’