'My name is Declan Macey and I'm very much not dead'

Emmerdale villain Declan Macey has been revealed to be alive and well in the soap.

Declan, played by Jason Merrells, was last seen floating into a lake, towards what his wife Charity (Emma Atkins) assumed was probably a watery death, but has now reappeared.

He had taken Charity on a woodland break with the intention of killing her after he found out she'd had an abortion, but she managed to escape his clutches and Declan's nephew Robbie Lawson (Jamie Shelton) died in the scuffle on the lake after relatives of the pair arrived to try to avert disaster.

In Wednesday night's episode, Charity was seen toasting what she thinks is her late husband and saying she won't forget him.

But meanwhile, Declan was pressing record on a video camera and holding up a copy of the day's newspaper, saying: "It's the eighth of October 2014. My name is Declan Macey and I'm very much not dead. But my wife Charity is going to wish I was."

A show insider told the Radio Times: "Declan's clearly alive and evidently still out to wreak revenge and make Charity suffer but as to how and when..."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.