Emmerdale stars address Cain and Moira’s future after new split fears
Emmerdale stars Jeff Hordley and Natalie J Robb, who play Cain and Moira Dingle, have revealed what’s ahead for the couple (Image: ITV)
One Emmerdale could call it quits in their marriage to another resident on the ITV soap next week.
But stars Natalie J Robb and Jeff Hordley have urged fans not to give up hope just yet, as they addressed the future of their characters. Moira and Cain Dingle face more drama next week, in the fallout to Moira’s prison release and Cain’s cancer diagnosis.
Cain will continue to push everyone away including Moira, leading to an emotional episode as Cain considers ending his marriage for once and for all. As Moira is desperate to get Cain to open up about how he’s really feeling about his upcoming operation, she faces a battle of her own to get her husband to have the treatment he needs.
What follows is a special episode for the pair as they dissect recent events, and discuss their future as Cain fears the side effects of his operation could tear them apart. Natalie and Jeff have told the Mirror what fans can expect…
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One Emmerdale could call it quits in their marriage to another resident on the ITV soap next week(Image: ITV)
Can you tell us about the special episode with Cain and Moira?
Jeff: “What we are trying to explore with this particular story, with the prostate cancer, is we’re putting it under the microscope and trying to show all the things that men have to deal with when they’ve got this illness. One of them are the huge life-changing repercussions you can have when you have these operations, which is erectile dysfunction, or you could be incontinent.
“You don’t know, coming out of this operation, whether that’s going to be a big change for you. So that’s where he’s at with his head. We did some stuff with Macmillan last week and were very fortunate to speak to two guys.
“It was really quite humbling but I kind of got from those two individuals, and it’s not the same for everyone else, but they were certainly happy that they chose to live and live with the side-effects so that they had a life. Cain ten proffers that idea that ‘maybe I don’t have it [the operation] and just live with the cancer’.
“The doctor is like ‘that could kill you’ but he says ‘I’d rather live a normal life, the life that I’ve already got, than live a life that’s changed’. He feels that it’s going to change his relationship and what he talks about with the doctor is that Moira likes sex, a lot.”
Natalie J Robb and Jeff Hordley have urged fans not to give up hope just yet(Image: ITV)
Natalie: “So does Cain, by the way!” Jeff: “We’ve not shied away from these things, because these are really important issues. He’s just in a really bad place.
“Then you come around and we start to talk, ‘cards on the table’. I think that’s the actual line I say to you. ‘Can we get through this?’ and you go ‘I don’t know’ and then he goes ‘right, I think we better split up then’. Then we have a big heart-to-heart about it.”
Natalie: “In her head, she thinks if that side of their relationship goes, she’s in love with him and that’s not going to change. She’s trying to say to him, ‘we can be creative, there’s other things we can do to keep that going along’.
“But deep down she’s saying these things and then going ‘do I actually believe that?’ Because it’s a big part of them as well. But in the end she does know that she’s faced with it. They don’t know how they’re actually going to feel at the time if it does come to that, but they are prepared, as long as she’s concerned.”
“You do say some awful things as well. It brings up the past.” Jeff: “In only the way the scriptwriters would do! I talk about Nate, you talk about Ruby.”
Natalie: “It’s good, it’s honest as you’d see in a relationship and that’s what’s nice. It’s nice that they’re showing you a marriage trying to get through something, rather than flying off the handle and doing things that are stupid, they’re trying to navigate their way through it.”
Cain will continue to push everyone away including Moira(Image: ITV)
How has it been to explore this completely different side of Cain?
Jeff: “It’s been a challenge. But the one thing that’s so interesting to explore… because the guy is really having to face something that he’s never faced before, so therefore his guard’s down on a lot of things. He’s unknowingly tapping into emotions that I don’t think he knew he had.
“I think this is why they probably chose the character for this storyline. He’s the classic man who doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t tell people. So by having this illness, this is what we’re exploring and finding out with the character, so it’s really interesting.
“But the workload has been the biggest challenge. Just because of the way we’re telling stories now is very different. Since December it’s been the most… it’s just a massive rollercoaster.
“The bottom line is, it’s been great and I’ve got the best wing lady. Sometimes it’s like ‘how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time’. But when you’ve got someone like Natalie next to you, it’s a breeze and we really have an understanding.
“Sometimes I’ve been coming into work thinking ‘I’m quite overwhelmed by the day’. But by the end of the day, I’m skipping out of work because we’ve just had so much fun even though the story is very heavy.
“I think it’s about us seeing through someone going through the journey of waiting, the ‘what ifs?’ over the side effects of surgery, and the things that men have to go through in these situations. You know and getting yourself tested. I’m 56 and I’ve been for a PSA test already because of this storyline. There’s other people in the company of a similar age to me who’ve gone, ‘I’m going to the doctors to get a PSA test’.
And that’s kind of what we want, really. If this can get 50 people, 10 people, 5 people to go to the doctors and find out. Because it’s an illness where you don’t know and sometimes it’s symptom free, then that will be a job well done.”
