Emmerdale aired some incredibly dark scenes this week, as Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson) found himself ensnared in a vicious extortion plot at the hands of ‘Mike’, an online-turned-real life confidant he met while in the midst of a deep confusion surrounding his sexuality.
Vinny has been off-kilter since his attempt to kiss his friend, Kammy Hadiq (Shebz Miah), and, although Kammy offered his non-judgemental support, Vinny has mostly kept his confusion internal while his wedding to Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) rapidly approaches.
His attempts to open up to Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) went slightly awry. Aaron’s admittance to kissing his ex Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) prior to exchanging vows with current husband John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) encouraged Vinny to divulge his own indiscretion – though failed to mention who the person (and their gender) he tried to kiss was.
When Aaron advised Vinny to keep the attempted kiss a secret, Vinny headed online to seek answers and found an LGBTQIA+ forum…and Mike.
After a meeting in the countryside, in which Vinny felt comfortable and safe to open up in the presence of a person supposedly experiencing the same issues as himself, Mike later appeared at Vinny’s home, when things took an incredibly dark turn.
As Mike slipped from kind and comforting to increasingly sinister, he eventually revealed that his intentions were far from altruistic and everything he’d told Vinny was a lie. Poor Vinny was then subject to a vicious beating.
Mike made Vinny transfer £10,000 to him and stole the wedding rings for his upcoming nuptials to Gabby. Amidst the sympathy they felt for poor Vinny, fans also realised they’d seen ‘Mike’ before…
Taking to a Facebook fan page for Emmerdale, one person commented: ‘anyone else remember that Mike from Corrie? Harvey got him to attack David.” Another fan added: “I thought I recognised him!”.
Macaulay Cooper, who played the twisted extortionist, also had a turn in Coronation Street as Reggie, a thug employed by Weatherfield underworld boss, Harvey Gaskall (Will Mellor).
Macaulay now has a trifecta of soap villains under his belt, having previously played drug dealer Rob, who’s selling of dodgy pills under the direction of resident gangster of the Chester village, Warren Fox (Jamie Lomas), resulted in the deaths of Lizzie Chen-Williams (Lily Best) and Hunter McQueen (Theo Graham).
He’s also appeared in Casualty, Hollyoaks and, most recently, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
