MANDY Dingle grows suspicious when Vinny boasts about his new work friend Alex next week in Emmerdale – and wonders if Alex is Vinny’s girlfriend.
Alex – who is actually Vinny’s dad Paul in disguise – has been spying on Vinny by getting a job at the scrapyard on the ITV soap.
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Emmerdale fans will know that Mandy recently revealed that she’d taken on Vinny as a baby after they were both abandoned by his father Paul – who she’d been dating at the time.
Mandy hadn’t been expecting to ever see Paul again and was shocked out of her skin when he rocked up in the village last month and demanded to see Vinny.
Paul insisted he had changed and wanted to be a better father, but Mandy clearly wasn’t convinced and lied that Vinny no longer lived in the village.
But Paul didn’t take no for an answer and sneakily got a job at the scrapyard where Vinny works, hiding his real identity as Vinny’s father and pretending to be a bloke called Alex.
Next week’s episodes of Emmerdale will see Vinny have a blast working at the scrapyard with new employee Alex, still completely oblivious that he’s actually his dad.
Later, Vinny tells Mandy how excited he is that Alex has got more hours at the scrapyard and that she’ll really warm to him when she meets him.
The following day, Vinny is buzzing about going to work and boasts to his mum about his new friendship with Alex.
But Mandy warns him to keep his wits about him and make sure he’s not being used.
When Vinny leaves for work, Lydia tells Mandy that she thinks his new friend might actually be a girlfriend.
They both start to convince themselves that Alex is a girl, and nosy Mandy can’t resist looking Alex up on social media to find out more.
Will she find the face of Vinny’s estranged father staring back at her on her screen?
If so, what on earth is she going to tell Vinny?
Actor Bradley Johnson – who plays Vinny – hinted at the turmoil his character will face if he discovers Alex’s true identity.
He told Digital Spy: “Paul comes to the scrapyard calling himself ‘Alex’ and Vinny just thinks he’s a random guy. Vinny sees him as a friend – someone he can have a laugh with.
“That all adds to the tension, as the whole thing is bound to explode when Vinny finds out. It’s brilliant because there’s so many different secrets.
“Vinny has no idea that Mandy has already seen Paul. Mandy also doesn’t know that Paul is still in the village.
“That’s why, when Vinny does find out, it’s sure to be a massive bombshell. All I’m going to say is that it’d be pretty explosive.”
Bradley added that the truth would test his relationship not only with his dad but also with Mandy.
He added: “I feel like it would upset Vinny, because things are finally going well for him. He’s finally got a purpose and a place where he feels happy.
“If anything disturbs that, he’s going to lose his cool a little bit. He’d want answers over what happened all those years ago.
“There’s so much of Vinny’s past that the audience don’t know. I think he’d also be annoyed that he’s been lied to by Mandy.”
