Moira Dingle is no stranger to chaos, but in upcoming Emmerdale scenes, the beloved character finds herself fighting multiple battles. From betrayals at home to a terrifying farm break-in, Moira’s world is crumbling fast.
Natalie J. Robb, who plays the iconic Moira Dingle, teases that just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, a surprising new character enters the scene, but this potential friendship may come with strings attached.
‘Moira’s always been feisty,’ Natalie says. ‘Moira has always been unpredictable like that, and if anyone threatens her home, and particularly her children, she always sees the red mist. That’s never changed; it’s been like that since day one. Maybe it’s more severe as time’s gone on and she’s hit the menopause.’
Right now, Moira’s under serious pressure. After a slurry leak on her land, she’s hit with a huge fine, one that pushes her to the brink financially. Worse still, she learns that Joe Tate was pulling strings behind her back.
‘A lot of this is coming from the slurry leak, that fine has really put her in trouble, that’s Mackenzie’s doing, although it’s actually John’s,’ Natalie explains. ‘She has all these people going behind her back, making deals behind her back. People are trying to push her out, especially Joe Tate. Everywhere she goes, she’s stuck, she’s got her back against the wall, and her stress levels are getting higher and higher.’
Moira lodges an appeal, but unbeknownst to her, it’s already been sabotaged. ‘Joe Tate paid the water board to not allow it to go through. She finds that out and obviously confronts Joe,’ Natalie reveals. ‘It’s like a proper battle, we’re the peasants and they’re the ones that really don’t care. They don’t care about the land, it’s all for access roads and routes to keep different parts of land connected, which she later on finds out.’
Joe then pushes Kim Tate’s offer to buy the farm, a tempting lifeline that comes with a catch. Moira could stay on as a tenant farmer, but the land would no longer be hers.
‘She thinks about it at first because the offer is quite good, and they propose that she can still stay on the farm as a tenant farmer,’ Natalie says. ‘In this day and age, it’s quite a common thing… but they don’t own it and at any possible time when a contract ends, they can leave and they wouldn’t have any say.’
Even Cain is conflicted. ‘He doesn’t want her to sell, obviously, and he certainly wouldn’t want Kim Tate to be the one that buys it,’ Natalie explains. ‘Nor does Moira, but she also can’t deal with the stress. And Cain, after her tumour and everything else, he sees her getting stressed so says he will back her regardless, even though it’s not something that he wants.’
Things escalate when a break-in at the farm leaves Moira’s son Kyle in danger. Two masked intruders, tied to a drug plot involving Robert, scare the boy, who ends up injuring one in self-defence.
‘Kyle hears something in the barn so he goes in and sees two guys with balaclavas on, quite frightening,’ Natalie says. ‘They start threatening him and he panics and pushes the pitchfork out and it catches one of them in the leg. The other one’s about to hurt Kyle, and then Moira comes in with a shotgun.’
Moira assumes Joe is behind the attack and defies Cain by going to the police. ‘She’s thinking Joe Tate’s gone a step too far,’ Natalie explains. ‘She tells the police it’s him, and no one threatens my children. Kyle’s traumatised because of what happened before with him shooting Al, so that brings things up for him.’
But when she confronts Joe, it backfires, badly. ‘She’s like, how dare you do this to my children,’ Natalie says. ‘He says something that makes her mad and she goes to punch him. Lydia jumps in front of her and gets punched in the ear which is quite horrific. I’m devastated that it’s Lydia of all people.’
That single moment sparks a fierce Dingle family feud. ‘Obvs Moira doesn’t handle it in the best way,’ Natalie admits, ‘but [Sam] knows that she hasn’t deliberately done it to Lydia. He’s divided more because Cain then threatens Lydia not to press charges. I’m saying to Cain, “You didn’t threaten her, did you?” and he’s like, “No, not at all”, but obviously he does, and it all comes out.’
Now, Moira must repair broken relationships and deal with a new threat, Celia, a sharp-edged woman renting nearby farmland. Natalie teases. ‘She’s quite hostile and she’s very rude when we first meet. She says, “I know you need the money and I’d like to rent your farm” for like literally next to nothing, and I’m like, “No, that’s not gonna happen.”’
But Celia quickly changes tack. ‘She starts to befriend her and Moira actually quite likes her in the end,’ she adds. ‘The question is, Celia could be working with someone else to try and push her out, but it’s whether Celia will stick with that. She’s someone she doesn’t want to be reckoned with.’
Despite everything, Natalie hopes Moira’s resilience shines through. ‘She always has problems with the farm, doesn’t she? But it’s real life, I suppose, because it is tough for farmers out there,’ she reflects. ‘Hopefully, good things can come from it, new ideas can be made to work on the farm, like glamping sites and things like that. That’s in my head, that would be nice.’
As Moira’s personal and professional lives collide, fans can expect emotional showdowns, shifting loyalties, and a possible new enemy hiding in plain sight.
‘She’s doing everything she can to keep things together,’ Natalie concludes. ‘It’s just sad that all these people are trying to get a piece of her, and there are more people that are going to come into it with more threatening behaviours. There’s some dark people coming into it, which I’m sure you know about.’
