All details revealed in Emmerdale’s special all male episode

An upcoming Emmerdale episode will mark a first for the show as it features only male cast members as some of the men of the village assemble in the Woolpack for a lock-in after hours.

It’s an idea that Marlon (Mark Charnock) has come up with to try to support his friend Paddy (Dominic Brunt), who is still giving Marlon cause for concern because of his mental health.

What happened to Paddy?

After a build up of pressures of guilt, isolation and grief following the breakdown of his marriage and unresolved issues from the past including the death of his daughter, Paddy went missing from the village for a while, leading to a frantic hunt to find him. When he returned it soon became clear he planned to take his own life. Luckily Marlon got to him before he could go through with it, but to the worry of everyone who loves him it’s clear that there’s a long road ahead for Paddy.

Who’s involved in the episode?

As Paddy’s best friend, Marlon takes the lead in organising the gathering in the Woolpack. It comes after a chance remark from Chas (Lucy Pargeter) that women deal better with problems generally because they’re more likely to talk things through with their friends. Jimmy King (Nick Miles) agrees that for him the community he’s found at the pub has been his sanctuary.

As well as Marlon and Jimmy there’s Paddy’s father Bear (Joshua Richards), who went through agonies of worry about Paddy when his son vanished, and later when he found a note from him and realised he was feeling suicidal.

Cain (Jeff Hordley), Nate (Jurell Carter), Liam (Jonny McPherson), Bob (Tony Audenshaw), Charles (Kevin Mathurin) and Sam (James Hooton) all join in, too. Each of them has a story to tell about troubles in their past (or present), but there’s also time to share childhood nicknames and play a game of darts.

What gave Emmerdale the idea for the all-male episode?

The show’s producer Laura Shaw told us, ‘When we embarked on this heartbreaking storyline about Paddy’s depression and attempted suicide we knew we wanted to shine a light on how important it is to just talk. Inspired by listening to real stories from the charity Andy’s Man Club, we decided to have some of the men in our village come together for a very special episode which purely focuses on them and seeing them talking about whatever they are feeling or thinking.

‘If watching some of our most loved characters opening up to each other encourages just one person to reach out and start talking, we will be extremely thankful.’

Andy’s Man Club, whose tag line is ‘It’s ok to talk’ is a men’s suicide prevention charity which, along with Samaritans, has worked closely with Emmerdale on Paddy’s storyline. Dominic Brunt spoke to people from Andy’s Man Club when preparing for the story and reflected that men can find it hard to talk.

‘It’s going to be an ongoing thing,’ he said of his character’s recovery.

‘Quite a bit of it on camera involving other people from the village, some people out of the village. Some people get very, very embarrassed in these situations and they don’t want to speak to friends but they will go and speak to somebody else that they don’t know. The Andy’s Man Club starting in Halifax, there’s 172 of them now, one of the chaps that runs it said you get a lot of people going out of town so they can speak to complete strangers. They’d rather do that because it’s embarrassing as a male sometimes to open up. For some males.’

Will the lock-in help Paddy?

Speaking about why Marlon comes up with the idea for the lock-in, Mark Charnock said, ‘Despite Paddy being home and safe back in the heart of the village Marlon is finding it hard to get through to him and is worried Paddy will never find the courage to open up and talk. When Chas and Jimmy both unwittingly give Marlon this idea it’s not long before Marlon is acting on their information and setting up this lock-in. He just hopes it will help.’

But does it help? Lorna Fraser, the executive lead for Samaritans’ media advisory service told us that talking is an important step on the road to recovery for a person in Paddy’s situation.

‘Paddy’s story creates an opportunity to show others, particularly middle-aged men, however difficult times can become, it’s always possible to get help and get through, and ultimately recover,’ she told us. ‘Depression and suicide are extremely serious topics, so we’re pleased to have seen the producers work so hard to ensure they got this story right in its telling.

‘We encourage anyone touched by this story to reach out to Samaritans, our amazing volunteers are always here to listen, day and night.

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