The Dingles are Emmerdale’s largest and most iconic family, fiercely loyal and protective of each other with their own proud traditions that go back for generations. This makes it extremely difficult for outsiders to become accepted as part of the family.
People who’ve married into the family, like Paddy (Dominic Brunt), Moira (Natalie J Robb) and Rhona (Zoe Henry), have succeeded in becoming part of the Dingle clan, while Lydia (Karen Blick) is practically the matriarch of the family despite not having been born a Dingle.
For others, acceptance is harder to come by and a lot depends on the willingness of the person to become fully immersed in Dingle tradition. This is why Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly) has only recently started to be accepted into the family through her friendship with Moira, as her snobbery and bad behaviour previously placed her firmly outside the circle of trust.
Living at Home Farm, being independently wealthy and running her own business – as well as being a bit ‘posh’ – means that Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) has an uphill struggle to be embraced by boyfriend Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson)’s family. But bless her, she’s trying.
In Monday (October 21)’s episode, Gabby turned up at Wishing Well with a thoughtful gift for the family who only the previous day buried beloved patriarch Zak (Steve Halliwell). She’d brought them a pie, in case nobody felt like cooking.
This was a lovely idea, but Mandy (Lisa Riley) didn’t quite see it that way. She wondered if Gabby was being patronising offering a corned beef and onion pie, as if she viewed the humble dish as something the lowly Dingles might like.
When Gabby revealed that she’d got Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) to make the pie because she doesn’t know how to work the oven, it was further proof to Mandy that Gabby wasn’t quite on the same wavelength.
‘They have corned beef at the Hide, do they, or do they just save it specially for us Dingles?’ Mandy teased her, determined not to make it easy for poor Gabby.
Gabby’s next faux pas was to question the fact that Sam (James Hooton) and Vinny were making the marker for Zak’s grave themselves. She offered to help but had to admit she was no good at woodwork – to the surprise of no one.
It wasn’t going well, so she decided to sit down and keep quiet. And that was her biggest mistake of all as Mandy and Vinny yelled at her to get up. She’d been sitting in Zak’s chair.
Sam came to the rescue as he insisted that Zak would have said they shouldn’t stand on ceremony, but Gabby was mortified.
‘It feels like me and Gabby are on another planet, Mandy later grumbled to Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper). But it wasn’t long before she had bigger things to worry about, as recently returned Tina Dingle (Samantha Power) turned up at the salon threatening to lay claim to a share in Wishing Well – and expose the fact that she’s Vinny’s biological mother.
Could Gabby turn out to be a useful ally for Mandy as she battles Tina over Vinny?
