Three Emmerdale characters to depart

Three characters will depart from Emmerdale later this year.

Three Emmerdale characters will leave the soap later this year despite only having been in the Yorkshire soap for a matter of months. The characters of Mick Naylor [Tony Haygrath], Lee Naylor [Lewis Linford] and Jake Doland [James Baxter] will all bow out of the soap in the coming months. The two Naylor characters only joined Emmerdale in late 2008 and were hailed by producer Anita Turner as a new “farming dynasty” for the soap – following in the footsteps of the Sugdens. However, producer Anita Turner stepped down from her role earlier this year and has since been replaced by Gavin Blyth who has taken the decision to axe the characters.

The character of Jake Donald has been with the soap since 2007 but he too hasn’t been spared the axe by Blyth who feels that all three characters have “had their day” – something that could be said of half the cast. The axings are part of Blyth’s plan to turn around the fortunes of the flagging soap and has introduced several new characters over the past few months such as Kaye Lamb [Kim Thomson] and Ryan Lamb [James Sutton]. He has also secured the return of fan favourite Charity Tate [Emma Atkins] and panto-villain Cain Dingle [Jeff Hordley]. All of which has so far failed to lift ratings for the ailing soap.