Moira Dingle's bad boy brother will be introduced in Emmerdale this autumn

Described as dangerous, fearless and sharp-witted, the feisty farmer's sibling's surprise appearance sets off a new storyline for Moira that finally explores the hitherto-untapped part of her life before she came to Emmerdale with her first husband John and their kids over a decade ago.

"Moira's family background and her childhood has remained a mystery," teases an ITV spokesperson. "That is all about to change this autumn. We'll soon discover new secrets about Moira when her brother arrives on the scene.

"He'll immediately make a huge and irrevocable impact on some of our most loved characters - especially his sister."

The tease comes as it was confirmed both Emmerdale and Coronation Street will return to airing six episodes a week from mid-September, having cut down to three in April during the UK lockdown to ensure the soaps remained on air.

The channel managed to keep both flagship continuing dramas on air without a transmission break, as they returned to filming before episodes completed pre-lockdown ran out.

BBC's EastEnders and Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks were forced into a temporary absence from the schedules earlier this summer as their stock of episodes were exhausted, but have now resumed production and will return to screens in September.

Fan favourite Moira has been at the centre of a major recent storyline that saw her become the victim of a hit and run. After life-saving surgery she is now recovering, and was on the verge of a reunion with estranged husband Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley), only for him to vacate the village to visit family in Scotland as he struggles to put his spouse's infidelity behind them.

There is no casting news yet on who will play Moira's mysterious brother, but his description as a swaggering bad boy means we can expect him to clash with Cain over who is the most important man in Mrs Dingle's life.

Considering we already know Moira cheated on the late John with his brother James back in the day, what other scandalous things did the saucy Scot get up to as a youngster?

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