Sorry (not sorry) to be shallow, but the presence of a bit of eye candy in a soap sure gives us a boost of an evening.
Emmerdale has already been spoiling us with the Barton boys and Michael Praed – silver fox! – but now they are serving up another dish.
Dark’n’ luscious locks, a well-trimmed beard and big Labrador eyes – what’s not to love, ladies and gaytlemen?
Well, Carly’s not best to see him propping up the bar of The Woolpack.
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But, then, he is her ex-boyfriend. And there’s some very unfinished business between the pair.
It turns out he is called Matt – and is played by Game of Thrones actor James Hickey.
It transpires that he is the father of Billy, the baby that Carly lost.
And he is furious to discover that she didn’t let him know that their son had died.
She reminds him that he abandoned them.
Meanwhile, when Marlon sees this man upsetting his girlfriend, he wades in – but ends up getting punched.
And, when he later makes a clumsy proposal, it seems that it couldn’t have been any more ill-timed.
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We suspect that Carly is harbouring some very unresolved feelings for her former partner.
However, with rumours that another villager is set to take a shine to him, she may well have tough competition.