Sally Dexter reacts to surprise Emmerdale return years after Faith Dingle's death
Emmerdale star Sally Dexter had "no idea" how bosses were going to bring Faith Dingle back from the dead.
Sally Dexter had "no idea" how her Emmerdale return was going to work.
The 65-year-old actress made a surprise comeback as Faith Dingle in Wednesday (12.11.25) night's episode, over three years after her character was killed off after a terminal breast cancer diagnosis.
However, Faith was seen back on screen this week as part of a special standalone episode of the ITV soap following Ryan Hawley's character Robert Sugden.
The episode - which focused on his own time away from the Dales - showed Faith visit him in person as she urged him to appeal against his murder charge.
Sally said: "They’ve thrown me in prison with Robert. It’s a flashback episode and it’s delightful to be back doing it.
"Well first of all I thought, ‘How are they going to get me back?'
"I’m dead! I’ve been dead I think it’s about two years, yeah, so I had no idea what was coming."
Sally loved being back on set, and admitted it all felt "very, very homely".
She added: "It’s been really enjoyable. It’s lovely coming back.
"It’s a bit like… I don’t know, coming back to a school that you went to, like you go back to your old school or an old house that you used to live in. It feels very, very homely.
“They’re just such a lovely bunch of people here, all of them, crew and cast included."
The soap star joked she was willing to go all out for a potential return, even if it meant playing her own long lost relative.
She quipped: "I have been practising my Australian accent, in case they decide that a cousin suddenly appears called Hope.
"And I’d put in for a blonde wig if they did.”
When she left the soap in 2022, Sally admitted she questioned why she thought her character's dramatic passing away plot had been "such a good idea".
She said: "Almost immediately we started it I began thinking, 'Why did I think this was such a good idea?'
"It did seem like a good idea at the time, but it made me profoundly sad.
"But then again leaving something you love is always going to be like that and Faith loves life."
