Former Brookside actor, John McArdle, joins the cast of Emmerdale

Former Brookside actor, John McArdle, has joined the cast of Emmerdale to play Ronnie Hale, a down-to-earth plumber who finds himself at the centre of a Home Farm family dispute.

When Chrissie (Louise Marwood) comes across an old love letter from Ronnie, she instantly suspects he could be her biological father but it’s not until there’s the excuse of a leak at Home Farm that she decides to call him.

With Ronnie unaware of Chrissie’s true agenda, will she establish the truth?

John commenced filming this month and will be on screen from mid April.

John said: "I am really pleased to be joining the cast of Emmerdale. The standard of the show is equal to anything I have worked on before and I am really happy to become part of that."

Iain MacLeod, Emmerdale series producer said: "I am thrilled to welcome an actor of John's pedigree to the show. And in Ronnie, we have a character that will unearth every painful fragment of love and loss buried in the White family's past - with the odd unexploded bomb thrown in for good measure!"

Emmerdale is produced by ITV Studios and appears on ITV Monday to Friday at 7pm with an extra episode at 8pm every Thursday.