Iconic soap character Sandy Thomas – played by the legendary Freddie Jones – is leaving Emmerdale (sob) and will be enticed away by a very familiar face.
The show has signed up another British acting icon, Wendy Craig, best known for her roles in BBC sitcom Butterflies, Not In Front Of The Children and Mother Makes Three.
(She also played Matron in ITV’s medical period drama The Royal!)
The beloved thesp will play a love interest for Ashley’s dad.
Sandy’s last scenes will play out on air on Feb 16 – next Friday – and Freddie will be bowing out with a joyful storyline after 12 years on the show.
The old boy is to find love again when a charming lady arrives in the village on a bus tour, armed with gifts from his pal Betty.
Maisie and Sandy are soon getting on like a house on fire, but when she announces she has to leave for Australia after a week together, he is clearly devastated.
Daughter-in-law Laurel hatches a plot to get him to follow his heart and go with her. Awww.
Freddie has opened up to the Radio Times about his decision to quit the soap and cites his commute as a big factor.
“I travel three hours by car, book into a hotel and then get up the next day to say maybe three sentences,” he revealed.
“And then do a three-hour journey back. I can’t justify staying, even though Emmerdale was very generous in asking me to.”
The veteran actor explained that the soap had offered him a new 12-month contract, but he didn’t know what he’d be doing in another year.
However he did admit to leaving with a certain heaviness of the heart, revealing what he will miss.
“A feeling of friendship,” he said.
“And overwhelming love from every quarter – props, lighting, make-up… nobody could have been kinder. My life will easily be more impoverished.”
Read more: Jason back in Coronation Street to take down Phelan?
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