Marlon Dingle is a fictional character from the British television soap opera Emmerdale, played by Mark Charnock.

Following the departure of Zak Dingle (Steve Halliwell), Marlon currently serves and the second longest-running character featuring in the programme, surpassed only by Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell).

His desperate attempts to win her back seemed to have failed but she was willing to forgive him after reading a romantic list of her characteristics written by Marlon.

The grief suffered by Marlon was prolonged close to a year until he developed a friendship with Donna Windsor (Verity Rushworth).

Although he rebuffed her attempts to snare him early in the year, Donna proved she was the woman for Marlon when she helped him look after his cousin, Lilith Dingle's (Amanda Hennessy), children when she suddenly left them with him.

When he proposed to her en route to a chef's competition in Newcastle, Donna agreed and it looked like there was a happy ending in sight.

On return from honeymoon, Marlon and Donna spent their first few months of married life living at Smithy Cottage with Paddy and Toni Daggert (Kerry Stacey).

Donna returned her mother's money as there was no longer a house to buy and Viv didn't need a surrogate, discovering she was pregnant.

Marlon is filled with guilt when the grateful bookie turns up to give him his winnings and when Donna even praised him for stopping the robbery.

Bundled into the back of a van, Eli drove him to the top of a multi-storey carpark, where he pretended he was going to throw him off the edge of the building to punish him for his 'betrayal'.

Marlon eventually managed to get free and the brothers had a fight which ended with Eli toppling over the edge of the building and only hanging on by his fingertips.

Eventually Donna arrived and helped Marlon haul him to safety, but Eli ran off, apparently upset at being saved.

Marlon broke down in tears and later confessed to Donna that he had considered allowing his younger brother to die and he thought that made him a terrible person.

Wanting to prove her mother's innocence, she started going on unofficial stakeouts with colleague Ross Kirk (Samuel Anderson).

However, during a conversation with Eli, Donna noticed a vital piece of evidence that could clear Ross's name and she shopped her brother-in-law to the police.

Following a period of depression, Marlon dedicated himself to helping little brother Eli, who had been disowned by the rest of the Dingle clan after his confession led to the arrest of Debbie.

Faced with Debbie's release, Eli went missing for a time, but Marlon eventually found him sleeping rough and managed to convince his wayward sibling to come home.

The two brothers lived together until Eli's departure in 2010, along with Lizzie Lakely (Kitty McGeever), a blind woman who Marlon befriended.

It reached boiling point and Moira quit, which led to an angry Diane giving Marlon the cold-shoulder until he apologised.

Alongside this, Marlon also took in Charity and her young son, Noah (Jack Downham) after the family turned against her for trying to steal Cain's money.

In January 2011, Marlon admitted to his housemate and colleague Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw) that his and Rhona's baby was going to suffer from Down syndrome.

Later in the evening, Marlon comforted Bob after his wife, Viv, and best friend Terry Woods died in an arson attack caused by Katie Sugden's (Sammy Winward) new boyfriend, Nick Henshall (Michael McKell).

The children struggled to cope following the recent events, particularly Gabby (Annelise Manojlovic), whose biological mother Bernice returned to the village in November.

In late 2012, Marlon became involved in a row and custody battle with Paddy and Rhona, who wanted to move to New Zealand for a couple of years, with Leo.

In October 2013, he is attacked by serial killer Cameron Murray (Dominic Power) and is knocked out cold in the flooding Woolpack cellar.

He is later released when the real culprit, Pierce Harris, Rhona’s ex-husband, who had raped her 3 years previously is arrested and sent back to prison.

He buys into the woolpack when Charity is disowned by the family after she makes a move on Al, who Debbie had discovered was cheating on her with Priya Sharma (Fiona Wade) weeks before.

After Pierce dies from cancer, Marlon is furious to discover that Rhona has been in contact with his son, Marcus Dean (Darcy Grey).

Rhona is told that Marlon’s speech and mobility have been severely impaired by the stroke and that he'll need rehabilitation to regain his ability to walk and talk.

[6][7] Rick Fulton of the Daily Record branded Marlon "Emmerdale's village jester" and "hapless", but noted that he was "one of the soap's best-loved characters".