Emmerdale’s Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) fears the worst when he’s unable to find daughter April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan), who has vanished without a trace.
April, as viewers saw, was nowhere to be found on Christmas Day following an argument she had with her dad on the previous night.
Reeling from her disappearance, Marlon begins to unravel the devastating reasons for his daughter’s decision to run away, discovering that she was leading a life that he was completely unaware of.
Upcoming scenes will see April’s family – and the whole Emmerdale community rally round – in a bid to find the missing teen, desperately hoping to locate her alive.
However, Marlon and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) are faced with the unthinkable as they worry that they might never see their daughter again.
Emmerdale has worked closely with Missing People to give this storyline as authentic a portrayal as possible.
‘Marlon has recently been struggling with his relationship with April but never imagined he would be in such a heartbreaking situation this Christmas,’ said boss Laura Shaw.
‘In the coming weeks, as the search for April intensifies, we explore the emotional turmoil a family faces when a young person goes missing.
‘We are so grateful to the charity Missing People for their invaluable help and support with this storyline.’
Kate Graham, Head of Communications at Missing People, added: ‘It has been an amazing experience to work with Emmerdale on this important storyline.
‘The researchers were clear from the start that they wanted to ground the storyline in reality and in no way glamorise it.
‘Everyone at Emmerdale, including the actors, have impressed us with their understanding of a very difficult subject matter, meeting with our team of experts, asking very relevant questions and really immersing themselves in the experience of both being missing and homeless, and also being the parents of a missing teenager.
‘We hope that as viewers watch this story unfold they are able to gain some understanding of what families with a missing loved one go through and why our charity exists to support those families, as well as anyone thinking of being missing, or anyone already away from home.’
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 or stream from 7am on ITVX.
