Mild-mannered Emmerdale GP Dr Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) hasn’t been feeling quite himself in recent episodes.
Claudette Anderson (Flo Wilson) spotted him on his way to the allotment and struck up a conversation about her spinach seeds.
Not the most riveting of topics, but that didn’t explain the huge yawn that Liam responded with. Claudette was a bit concerned. Liam explained he’d had a disturbed night’s sleep.
Was he perhaps worrying about his fiancée Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter)’s son Aaron (Danny Miller), who at the time was in an induced coma in hospital?
Or was he concerned about his work colleague John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), in the same hospital recovering from injuries sustained when he pulled Aaron off a cliff in yet another action as the village’s current killer?
Not that Liam knows that last bit, of course. Many more sleepless nights are ahead when the residents of Emmerdale discover the full extent of John’s crimes, which include smacking Liam over the head and drugging Chas, as well as killing Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter) and shooting Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) through the chest with an arrow and keeping him imprisoned in a bunker.
Lets take a look at what’s been going on.
What’s wrong with Dr Liam Cavanagh in Emmerdale?
It has become clear that something isn’t quite right in Liam’s life, and that’s without John.
Back to Liam and his broken night’s sleep, which he informed Claudette was bladder-related. Caffeine goes through him ‘like a Ferrari,’ apparently. Claudette said that was what her late grandson Ethan would have called ‘too much information.’
As Claudette went on to ask about Aaron’s health, Liam looked to be in a bit of discomfort and was soon making his excuses and heading off.
Later, at the allotment, we saw him relieving himself behind the shelter of some plants. Maybe not quite sheltered enough, because when Claudette turned up she was quite shocked at the sight that greeted her. Liam attempted to explain but was branded a ‘dirty, dirty man’ by his deeply moral employee.
That’s the kind of thing that could have Liam’s previously good reputation in the village in tatters if Claudette was to broadcast it, but in the episodes that followed, she shared a more sympathetic approach when Liam admitted that he’s been having trouble controlling his bladder.
Claudette urged him to get his prostate checked out, and obviously this is exactly the advice Liam would give to other people. But they say doctors make the worst patients, and at the moment he is doing everything he can to avoid the issue.
In tonight’s episode, when Manpreet Sharma (Rebecca Sarker) demands a full audit of the medical surgery, Liam uses it as an excuse not to attend his appointment, before cancelling entirely.
However, later this week things get more serious when Manpreet finds him urinating in the hand basin in the surgery, and he realises that he needs to face up to what is going on.
Later, he finally admits to Chas that he fears he may have prostate cancer.
Will he finally get himself checked, and will the tests prove him right?
This article was first published on September 15, 2025.
