MERE days before celebrating an explosive anniversary, ITV viewers had to bid Faith Dingle a heartfelt farewell.
Emmerdale bosses revealed a goodbye video featuring actress Sally Dexter after her on-screen death was aired last night.
Faith Dingle decided to end her life on her own terms
Actress Sally Dexter left fans with an emotional goodbye video
Her on-screen death was aired last night
The hour-long instalment focused on the character and her family as the Dingles realised their time with Faith had officially and unexpectedly ran out.
Just as she told her daughter-in-law Moira, Faith decided to take her own life, determined to die in her own terms instead of letting her cancer take over.
Viewers of the Yorkshire-based program were left in floods of tears as they discovered her highly-anticipated (and dreaded) death scenes.
In the emotional goodbye video released on YouTube, Sally Dexter spoke of her time as the fan-favourite village veteran.
“I think they’ll love her lust for life. And the fact that she’ll give anybody a chance at least once”, she said, speaking of her character.
“I think they’ll miss her mischief.”
“They’ll miss her outrageous hairstyles and I know, her clothes sense.”
“The fact that she’ll have a crack at anything or anyone. She won’t back down. So yeah, they’ll miss her mischief.”
She then spoke of her time as Faith on the long-running show, which has recently been awarded the gong for best serial drama at the National Television Awards.
“It’s been wonderful to be here”, Sally added, “really wonderful.”
“[Faith] is sort of an amalgamation of a lot of my family, female family members. So it’s been a real pleasure to walk so closely with her.”
“I’ve loved it, I really have.”
The West End star was cast as Faith in 2017, taking over from Gillian Jephcott who portrayed her in the noughties.
As mentioned above, Moira knew all about Faith’s plans to commit suicide and tried to convince her not to set her plan into action.
Faith agreed until it was made clear she was actually sticking to her guns.
Her son Cain – with whom she’s had a strained relationship – rushed to her bedside upon realising what she was planning to do.
Cain was a witness to his mother’s dying moments as he reassured her he understood why she kept everything a secret.
“I love you, mum”, he told her as he cried.
In heart-breaking scenes, Cain comforted Faith by telling her: “It’s okay. You just need to go to sleep now.”
Speaking of the happy day they had just shared, he added: “We’ve got that now, always. Always got that.”
The episode ended with Cain hugging his mother as she slipped away.
Emmerdale airs weeknights from 7.30pm on ITV.
Faith shared one last day with her family
But she made plans to end her life weeks ago
