Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) was central to one of Emmerdale’s biggest plots this year, when he discovered that John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) wasn’t actually the honourable, heroic medic he portrayed himself to be.
What he found out, in fact, was that John is a grade-A, certifiable wrong’un.
He’s learned that John is a crazed killer who has a deep-rooted problem with needing to be seen as a hero, engineering life or death situations designed to see him swoop in and rescue people. Besides that time that he couldn’t.
Mack’s discovery left him completely at John’s mercy and while we at home worried that he’d gone the same way as poor Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter), his fate was actually arguably just as grim. John had locked him in an underground bunker, chained to a wall and completely at the mercy of the dangerously unhinged medic.
Though John eventually did the right thing, taking a seriously unwell Mack to the hospital in the aftermath of his final stand. Y’know, when he threw himself and husband Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) off a cliff to frame Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley)?
Told you he was a wrong’un.
Unfortunately for Mack, he’s returned to an absolute mess. See, prior to being held captive, things with wife Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) were hardly going swimmingly, following her decision to act as a surrogate for Sarah Sugden (Katie Hill).
I say ‘not swimmingly’; their marriage was on the verge of complete collapse, and Charity drunkenly found her way back to ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick), albeit very temporarily.
She went back to Mack and went ahead with her surrogacy plan, this time with his begrudging support. Upon his disappearance, though, things got seriously complicated when she slept with Ross Barton (Michael Parr), with tests eventually revealing that the baby she’s carrying is his, not Sarah’s.
With Charity vowing to keep it a secret, even forging a document to shut a deeply suspicious Ross up, Charity and Mack have been reunited after his cellar hell, though the unlikely friendship that’s developed between Ross and Mack has left Charity deeply concerned.
With Mack (and Charity and former tormentor, John) confirmed to be involved in the game-changing Corriedale episode, which will see both ITV soaps unite amid a catastrophic car pile up, Lawrence teased what was to come.
On what he thought upon the announcement of the dream cross-over episode, Lawrence said: ‘My initial thought was, God, I hope I’m in it! Then it was just thinking about how this is history.
‘We’re part of something that’s never been done before. Everybody here, all the actors are honoured to be part of such an iconic moment for both soaps.’
With an enormous stunt promised from the episode, we asked what role Mack will play in it. ‘I am involved in some of the stunts,’ Lawrence confirmed. ‘That’s always good fun,’ he added.
Surely working so closely with the Corrie cast resulted in some new friendships for the actors? Well, not for Lawrence, unfortunately, as he didn’t get to work with any!
‘Because of what happens for Mack, he doesn’t really interact with a great deal of Corrie characters,’ he said. ‘That’ll all become clear but unfortunately I didn’t act alongside any of them,’ he teased.