Emmerdale actor Mark Charnock has revealed all on his character Marlon Dingle's devastating new storyline, as the ITV soap favourite has a stroke.
The character will be found by young daughter April who calls for an ambulance, following her dad going missing from a family event.
Marlon has headed home to find an engagement ring he plans to propose to girlfriend Rhona Goskirk with, but one moment "utterly changes his world".
Speaking to The Mirror and other press about the new storyline, actor Mark detailed the terrifying moment Marlon becomes aware something is very wrong, as everything slows down around him.
During what should be one of the happiest times of his life, the character soon finds his life changing suddenly as he's rushed to hospital and he learns he's suffered a stroke.
Mark told us: "Suddenly everything comes together for him. He's thrilled to bits, running around and jumping, but he realises he's not got the ring for her.
"So he runs back to Rhona’s house to get the ring and he goes in, and he is scurrying around and suddenly out of nowhere he's just hit by a kind of truck.
"Over a period of moments his world changes utterly, everything seems to slow down for him and everything seems to stop. He is very aware something is very wrong but there has been no build-up or anything.
"When he catches sight of himself in the mirror his face has completely drooped to the right side. He collapses and he's frozen really, he can't move. He is trying and he's absolutely seized with terror."
Mark added: "Once he sees himself in the mirror he realises what's happened. He begins to quickly understand what has happened to him which only fuels the terror."
On the medical condition changing his character "forever", he revealed the responsibility he felt portraying the story.
He said: "It will change the course of the character forever and I'm not worried about that so much, it’s just another part of the story.
"These things happen to people, and it happens to have happened to him like anything else could have happened to him. The way I look at it really is it adds something to him rather than it takes away.
"It will change him but that doesn't necessarily mean in a bad way. It gives him more stuff to play with as a character and it’s daunting because it’s a big story, and a big responsibility to the survivors, but at the same time I welcome it really because it’s an important story."
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Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.
