Emmerdale cast members filmed heartbreaking scenes recently for Zak Dingle’s funeral, after their co-star Steve Halliwell’s death last year – and now one star has spoken about the episodes

Steve Halliwell’s Emmerdale co-stars are hoping they’ve done the actor and his character Zak Dingle “justice” with some emotional scenes.

On Thursday, Zak’s family say goodbye as they honour him at his funeral. Zak actor Steve, who played the soap icon for almost 30 years, passed away in December last year.

The news left his co-stars devastated, with his last scene on the show airing just months earlier. Zak’s death was announced on the soap earlier this week leaving the Dingles in pieces.

Speaking to The Mirror recently, Sarah Sugden actress Katie Hill shared her hopes for the episodes surrounding Zak’s death and his funeral. Sarah will be left grieving for her great-grandfather, as she and her family pay tribute and say their goodbyes.

Actress Katie told us she hoped she and her co-stars “did Steve and Zak justice” hoping to make him proud. She also revealed things were emotional on set during filming, but the “close” cast were there for one another if they needed support.

She told us: “I hope we’ve done him justice. It’s such a lovely episode, we filmed it over three or four days. We did find it quite difficult to say goodbye to Zak.

Emmerdale cast members filmed heartbreaking scenes recently for Zak Dingle’s funeral (Image: ITV)

“But as well as saying goodbye to Zak Dingle, we were also saying goodbye to Steve. We are so lucky we’re such a close group of people. If someone gets upset over a real-life situation or when we’re filming, we can be there for a hug and stuff. It’s a really special episode.”

Katie also revealed Sarah would be there for her grandfather Cain Dingle, in the fallout to Cain’s father Zak’s death. She teased: “Sarah and Cain have such a nice relationship. If he was ever down Sarah would definitely want to be there for him.” Meanwhile Sarah’s mother Debbie Dingle doesn’t look set to be returning.

In a scene on Wednesday night, Cain called his wife Moira Dingle after arriving in Scotland. He shared the news that Debbie would not return home with them.

Moira was heard asking Cain: “So Debbie is not gonna go? No I know it’s her choice.” The call then broke up and Moira ended the phone call, with her relaying the sad information to her son Matty Barton.

As Matty asked: “Is Debbie not coming back for the funeral?” Moira told him: “She’s told Cain that she can’t face it, it has hit her hard.” It followed Debbie’s mother Charity Dingle being concerned for her daughter when she struggled to get in contact with her after learning of Zak’s passing.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.