'I thought it was him!' Zak Dingle's 'twin' rocks up in Emmerdale

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Emmerdale fans were left doing a double take while watching an episode last week, as someone who looked remarkably like Zak Dingle (Steve Halliwell) featured in a scene.

Actor Steve died last December. Recently in the ITV soap, the Dingle family said goodbye to Steve’s character Zak after Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb) informed the family he had died.

The week was emotional and overwhelming for the family, and also featured the return of Zak’s daughter Tina (Samantha Power). After the funeral, siblings Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper), Cain (Jeff Hordley) and Sam (James Hooton) reflected on the loss and pondered over Cain becoming the new ‘head of the family’ and donning Zak’s flat cap.

Since then, amid the Dingles moving forward, Charity (Emma Atkins) has been dealing with another shock in the form of Ross Barton (Michael Parr) returning.

The character was back in the village at the start of last week, introduced as Billy’s (Jay Kontzle) boxing opponent. Attention then turned to him catching up with Charity, the mother of his son Moses.

As Charity and Ross chatted outside the pub in last Thursday’s (October 31) episode of the soap, fans were distracted by an extra in the corner of the shot.

With a long beard and flat cap, many audience members couldn’t help point out how much the character looks like the late Zak Dingle.

Over on a Facebook page that discusses the ITV soap, one fan wrote: ‘Zak’s back!!’, while another echoed the shock and said: ‘Omg I thought it was him too for a split second.’

Also on X, one person said: ‘Catching up on last nights #Emmerdale and was shocked to see the doppelgänger of the late Zak Dingle in the pub beer garden. Quite creepy esp for Halloween!’.

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Oddly enough, this isn’t the first time a Zak Dingle lookalike has appeared in a soap.

In 2017, a scene in EastEnders saw Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) preparing to leave Albert Square forever after son Ben Mitchell (then Harry Reid) didn’t believe that businessman James Willmott-Brown (William Boyde) had raped her thirty years earlier. 

But it wasn’t the drama fans were focussing on – instead it was two extras having a browse through the marketplace that bore a striking resemblance to Emmerdale’s Zak and Lisa Dingle (Jane Cox)!

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