DI Malone messes with Cain
MARK WOMACK IS ENJOYING LIFE AS DASTARDLY DI MALONE…
New Emmerdale supervillain DI Mark Malone has only been in the show for a few weeks, but he’s already caused one heck of a stir. He’s proved to be a mastermind of pure evil – ordering bulls to be murdered, threatening families and wrecking lives. Heaven knows how far he’ll push things and what that’ll mean for Cain, Will and Billy, who are all caught up in his web. Thankfully, for Dales newcomer Mark Womack (Malone), the battles end the second the actors step off the set…
“Jeff [Hordley who plays Cain] has really taken me under his wing – he’s been great!” enthuses the star. “When I arrived, he knocked on my door and handed me his phone number saying,
‘If there’s anything you need, just call me’. He’s a very warm guy, even though he’s the hard man of the village!
“I didn’t know what to expect at
Emmerdale, but Malone is a great role, and I’m really enjoying the experience,” adds Mark. “He’s soon got Cain, Will and Billy doing what he wants, hasn’t he? I’ve tried to make Malone a bit charming to begin with, but you already know he can be very cruel. It’s like in
The Godfather, though – he’s the one who sends other people to do terrible things for him!”
Although Mark has a very long CV and varied career, this is the first time he’s worked on a soap. But with his wife Sam Womack having spent a decade as Ronnie Mitchell in Eastenders, he’s known what to expect from the long days and endless scripts…
“It’s hard to switch off when I get home – I have a bite to eat, and then I pull out my scripts to start learning again,” explains Mark. “Sam’s helping me. She’s really good at learning lines. She’ll read four pages of a script, look at it for two minutes and then go, ‘All right!’ I’ll say, ‘You can’t have learnt it yet!’ And she’ll go, ‘I’ve learnt it!’”
And soap pro Sam reckons that Mark is on to a winner with his Emmerdale character…
“Sam said to me, ‘This is a really good part!’” shares Mark. “I love playing villains – I’ve played a few in the past and they’re great fun.
They are often written very well, and there’s more meat on them. You can be charming one minute and horrible the next, so it’s like having free rein, within the context of the writing!”
Speaking of charming, we couldn’t help but notice the chemistry between Malone and Moira when he arrived
Malone gets other people to do terrible things for him!
to reassure her that the police were looking into the murder of her bull. Given his intention to mess with Cain, could we see him try to get close to Moira in a romantic way?
“He might – that would be nice,” teases Mark. “The relationship Malone has so far with Moira is very distant, but I could see something like that happening maybe. It’s not for now, certainly, but who knows?”
We’re suitably intrigued and looking forward to finding out what terrible things Malone has in store for our
Emmerdale favourites. However, we do know that given the massive story he’s part of, Mark’s about to discover what life is like as a big soap villain. Is he ready for the viewers’ response?
“I’m used to it because of Sam, and I’ve seen how it impacts, but I’m probably not braced for it,” he admits. “She was in Eastenders for 10 years, so it’s hardly the same, but I know it can be impossible to do simple things like going to Tesco. It’s not that people aren’t nice, it’s just that you can’t get anywhere because you get stopped by people asking for photos. It got to the point where she’d say to me, ‘Can you do it?’ Maybe now I’ll send Sam out instead!”