The moment Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) has dreaded finally arrives in Emmerdale next week, when he finally has to reveal the truth about his cancer to his wrongfully-imprisoned wife, Moira (Natalie J Robb).

Moira and Cain have been through so much as a couple, but everything pales in comparison to what they’re currently facing individually.

As Cain deals with the reality of having prostate cancer, Moira is banged up, framed by truly evil drug-and-human trafficker, Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths), for all of her crimes.

Cain, though, has managed to keep from Moira that due to the machinations of trust-fund nightmare Joe Tate (Ned Porteous), the farm where they’ve lived for so long and that Moira has poured her blood, sweat and tears into is in dire financial straits, and he’s turned to stealing cars to make ends meet.

She’s also completely unaware as to how severe his cancer has become.

Has Moira suspected anything is out of the ordinary at home? ‘No, she’s been thinking he’s been acting a little bit shifty, but he often does sometimes with different things’ says actor Natalie.

It’s with the encouragement of his granddaughter, Sarah Sugden (Katie Hill), that he finally decides he needs to come clean about everything. An episode involving painful urination and bleeding sees him turn to best friend Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson), who reinforces what Sarah said: he has to tell Moira the truth.

Natalie describes the shock Moira feels: ‘He’s her rock, as much as she is to him, and it’s all about the family.’

‘She thinks ‘What about the boys? What are we going to do?’ She just worries about what outcome it’ll have on the family.’

How does Moira feel about being locked up while Cain faces up to his diagnosis? ‘That’s her bugbear through all of this, the fact that she’s totally helpless and she wishes she could be there for him and she can’t be.’

Moira pushes Cain to tell the wider Dingle family, so they can be there to support him.

‘She tells him to share it with the family so he’s not burdened with it himself, because they need to know – especially the boys. That worries her, that they’re left in the dark.

‘They need to understand where he’s coming from. Because she can’t help him she urges him to do that.

‘She doesn’t want him to do it alone, because when you’re in a situation like that it’s easier if you have the support you need from the people who are around you and love you, so they understand the situation properly.’

Can Natalie see a world in which her alter-ego doesn’t live and work at Butler’s, a place that she’s personified for so long?

‘That’s a very high possibility, yes,’ she admits.

‘But I think family is the most important thing to her. Cain’s realising that as well, which is why he’s trying to protect her by keeping things from her, but at the same time he realises she’s a stronger cookie than that.’

Natalie went on to heap praise on the scene where Cain finally opens up to Moira: ‘That particular scene where he tells me, that was a twelve and a half minute scene and we did it, we didn’t forget our lines or anything, we just did it. It’s written very well by a writer called Adam Sales, who’s come up through the ranks. He knows the characters and you can tell.’

So what’s still to come for Cain and Moira? Surely a bit of happiness?

‘There are going to be a lot of twists and turns and, to be honest with you, I don’t even know what all of them are myself. You never know what you’re going to get.’