Author: Kerry Barrett

Things are definitely heating up in Emmerdale as Moira Dingle and Ruby Fox-Miligan are trapped when an explosion rages through a barn.

With Moira clearly struggling with some sort of mysterious affliction, her issues come to a head when she puts Ruby’s life at risk.

But could both women end up dead when the fire takes hold? We sat down with Natalie J Robb who plays Moira, and Beth Cordingly, AKA Ruby, to find out what’s going on.

What’s up with Moira?

Moira’s behaviour has definitely changed – is she aware that something’s wrong?

“She’s definitely unsettled by it,” Natalie tells us. “She’s clearly convinced it’s partly menopause but what starts to worry her is the way she’s reacting – her different outbursts. She can’t control her anger. And she’s having a little bit of a drink as well so we don’t know if that is a contribution to it. But she’s not drinking as much as maybe the audience are led to believe.”

And of course, on top of that, Moira and Cain’s marriage is starting to fall apart, thanks to her odd behaviour around Nate causing trouble.

“Caleb believes Moira has kissed Nate,” Natalie explains. “But she’s been consoling Nate about Tracy. She basically offers him a hug but from Caleb’s point of view it certainly looks more than a hug, he thinks it’s a kiss. Then he obviously tells Cain…”

And of course Cain doesn’t react well! He confronts his confused wife – how does that make Moira feel?

“She’s absolutely in denial because as far as she’s concerned that’s not what happened at all. But she is also second guessing – she’s got a little bit fuzzy with her memory and she’s confused.”

Moira’s behaviour might be unpredictable but Cain’s is absolutely on brand. As always, he lashes out first, asks questions later – and beats up his own son, Nate.

“Moira’s upset by it, and a little bit angry at him because he’s taken matters far too far and made things a lot worse than what they should’ve been.”

Ruby sticks her nose in!

And of course, that’s when Ruby gets involved!

“I think Ruby just jumps on the bandwagon,” laughs Beth Cordingly, who plays meddling Ms Fox-Miligan. “Ruby is very upset because Moira accused her of flirting with Cain, they have had a bit of a run-in and so when Ruby finds out from Caleb that everybody thinks Moira’s been having it off with Nate she goes up to the barn to have a bit of a gloat!”

But when Ruby gets to the barn, she finds Moira is behaving very strangely.

“Very,” agrees Beth. “Ruby walks in but very quickly she can see something’s not right. Moira’s spilling oil all over her hands, she looks like she’s in a bit of a daze. She sees Ruby and starts calling her ‘Emma’.”

Trigger point

It sounds very frightening for Ruby!

“Moira picks up a gun, at which point obviously Ruby starts panicking!” Beth says. “Genuinely she is really scared.”

So what’s going on with Moira? Does she really think Ruby is Emma Barton – the woman she killed after a dramatic series of events.

“Moira’s got no idea what is happening to her,” admits Natalie. “Definitely the PTSD comes through because they’re in the barn, just as when it was Emma Barton in the barn when she tried to kill Moira, and then Moira had a baby she didn’t know she was having!”

Remembering another Emmerdale explosion…

So this triggers something in Moira?

“I think it sets something off in her,” Natalie agrees. “She starts to see Emma’s face in Ruby’s’ face. But Ruby obviously doesn’t know what is going on, Moira has totally lost the plot. Ruby doesn’t know who these people are. She’s freaking out and actually Moira is actually quite frightened. At that point that’s who she believes she’s seeing and Ruby says something quite similar to what Emma said to her just before she tried to kill her in the barn. She’s very triggered.”

And that’s just the beginning! Because things get worse when Moira fires the gun she’s holding.

“It hits the light, which sends sparks flying obviously,” Natalie says.

“And oil has spilled over the floor from when she was in a strange daze,” Beth continues. “We have a bit of a tussle and I get whacked and knocked unconscious by the gun.”

Emmerdale explosion!

By then, of course, the flames are burning…

“Ruby is knocked out and Moira tries to wake her up. She does switch out of her daze and then immediately goes into trying to help Ruby. But then there is an explosion, and maybe not everybody gets out of that Emmerdale explosion…” teases Natalie.

So how did Natalie feel to revisit the Emma Barton storyline?

“I thought it was great,” she says. “When you hear about it sometimes you wonder if it will work, but it was such a wonderful team that week, a fantastic week of filming. Everything was done properly with the special effects team and everything else there was so much positivity around it, I really think its going to work. So it might sound a bit strange to you all, but I think with all the layers that are going on and all the things that are happening, it will all make sense!”

Of course, the filming itself was tricky – and dangerous and both women had stunt doubles.

“They were very brave,” gushes Natalie. “There’s a moment where something happens and the fire is completely all around them and I don’t know how they did that really! It goes to show you that’s why that’s their job and we do our job! There were some quite scary moments!”

“It was a really cool experience for everybody, the crew loved it, it was exciting,” remembers Beth. “When they did the stunts we’d all stand together and watch the stunt doubles doing their amazing stuff. It was quite an experience!”

Best of friends

Moira and Ruby may be enemies but Natalie and Beth enjoy working together.

“I love working with Nat,” says Beth. “I’m hoping if we survive that we get more stuff together!”

“We worked together on The Bill,” Natalie explains. “But we didn’t get to know each other because the cast was so vast and you’d dip in with different people every day. Now she’s like my best buddy so it’s lovely.”

READ MORE: Forget Charity, could Mack and Aaron be the soap’s hottest new couple?

Emmerdale usually airs weeknights on ITV at 7.30pm.

Classic Emmerdale usually airs every weekday on ITV3 at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm.

Plus, visit our Facebook page @emmerdaleinsider for all the latest Emmerdale news, gossip and spoilers!