Emmerdale spoilers follow.

Emmerdale star James Hooton has addressed the

soap’s upcoming funeral storyline for Zak Dingle.

The show will write in the death of the character after the passing of

actor Steve Halliwell last year, with the village set to be informed that Zak has died off-screen in Scotland.

Appearing on Loose Women yesterday (July 10), Hooton – who plays Sam

Dingle on the soap – was asked about the upcoming tribute to Zak.

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“I think it’s August we start filming which sort of tackles Zak passing away,” he revealed. “Obviously, Steve passed away at the back end of last year, with his funeral early this year.

“So, I don’t know much about how the story unfolds at the moment but I think it’s going to be a really respectful passing of a really iconic Emmerdale character.”

Speaking earlier this month, Emmerdale producer Sophie Roper revealed that the soap will include a “fitting tribute” to Zak and actor Steve.

“The Dingles have been at the heart of our show for 30 years now and will continue to be so,” she told Digital Spy and other media.

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“We lost Steve recently – the very sad loss of Steve. So we’re going to be marking Zak’s passing – the iconic Zak Dingle character – in the coming months with a Dingle funeral.”

Roper said that filming the funeral scenes will be “very difficult” for many people on the soap and “a lot of our viewers who have grown and loved Zak for many, many years”.

“But there’ll be a hugely fitting tribute for such an iconic character coming up,” she added.

Halliwell’s passing was announced in December 2023 at the age of 77, with the soap and many of its cast members paying tribute to the star.

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.

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