Emmerdale's Marlon Dingle actor Mark Charnock has discussed his character's ongoing stroke storyline, and said it was "about the audience" from the start.
The storyline and Mark's portrayal of Marlon during the emotional plot has seen the soap and the actor win awards, most recently at the National Television Awards and the Inside Soap Awards.
But actor Mark has said the real award for doing the storyline is the "passionate" response by fans to the difficult scenes.
Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, Mark said raising awareness and informing viewers about strokes, and that it can happen to anyone, was key for him doing the plot.
He hopes viewers will be encouraged to make changes to their lifestyles to help prevent a stroke, while he also revealed the future of the storyline.
Mark told us: "It was always about raising awareness, that was the main thing. We wanted people to see how often this happens and how it happens to people you don't think it's gonna happen to.
"Even if it's made just a handful of people make a tiny change to their lifestyle, who knows, it's been about the audience this story. Their reaction to it has been part of the drama really."
He added: "The fact that they’ve got it so completely and passionately, that’s the award right there."
On what's ahead for his character, Mark said: "It is very small changes, Emmerdale were never going to just say oh this big thing has happened, and now he’s better.
"They were always gonna follow it through, so it is tiny changes all the time, and the setbacks and so on.
"So whatever changes happen to him it is gonna be slow, but you know it is a story full of hope more than anything else, so I hope he gets as better as he can do given what he has been through."
Got any theories or thoughts on the storyline? Let us know in the comments section below
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
