BELLE'S SANTA PAWS SURPRISE

Belle Dingle gets her Christmas wish as her beloved dog Piper returns, while events take a dark turn for Marlon in Emmerdale

- ALICE PENWILL

Christmas has arrived in the Emmerdale village, but for two characters, it's a rather bleak affair. Belle Dingle bravely faced her abusive husband Tom King in court last week, so unsurprisingly she's not feeling very festive. While she's escaped Tom's clutches, she's still mourning the loss of her dog, Piper, who Tom said he ran over and killed. However, after uncovering more of her husband's lies, Belle has her suspicions as to what happened to the pup.

“She never saw a body,” says actress Eden Taylor-Draper, who plays Belle. “She can’t get it out of her head and Tom [played by James Chase] has lied about so much. So she opens Piper’s casket but all that’s in there is a brick. Belle’s then determined to find Piper and goes to Rhona [Goskirk, played by Zoe Henry] but it’s actually Vinny [Dingle, Bradley Johnson] and Gabby [Thomas, Rosie Bentham] who end up tracking her down.”

This Christmas is the first Belle spends without her dad, Zak Dingle, who died off-screen earlier this year after the real-life death of actor Steve Halliwell in December 2023. When Belle visits her dad’s grave, a sort of miracle plays out. Eden explains, “All of a sudden, Piper is running up to Belle with a big bow on. It was so cute. I’d seen Minnie [the dog who plays Piper] recently, but we’d not worked together. It was the best day!”