Emmerdale producer shares changes made to DI Malone's exit story
The following article contains discussion of themes including suicide that some readers may find upsetting.
Emmerdale spoilers follow.
Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw has revealed the original ending to DI Malone's storyline.
Malone (Mark Womack) was killed off this week, after his attempt to get rid of Dawn Taylor led to his long-awaited comeuppance.
After Malone tried to bully Dawn (Olivia Bromley) into taking her own life by overdosing, Harriet Finch (Katherine Dow Blyton) stepped in to save her – hitting the villain over the head with a kettle.
When Malone regained consciousness and went on the attack again, Dawn finished off the job by shooting him three times.
Related: Emmerdale's Billy Fletcher to be dumped by Dawn Taylor after DI Malone drama
Emmerdale bosses initially had a different scenario in mind, which was reworked after COVID-19 restrictions led to social distancing rules on set.
Speaking about the altered storyline, Laura explained: "Originally in the scripts, the endgame for Malone was much more physical. His intention was always to go and kill Dawn.
"As he had her trapped in Woodbine, we would see a cat and mouse game as Dawn tried to fight back, before Malone took control and had his hands over Dawn's nose and mouth, planning to suffocate her to death.
"Just at the moment you felt it was game over for Dawn, Harriet would appear and use all her strength to grab Malone off Dawn, causing him to crash into the sideboard, hitting his head, knocking him out."
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She continued: "Similarly to what's played out on screen now, you saw the two women fearing he's dead, before Malone shocked them by rearing himself back up, then the fatal blow delivered by Dawn.
"In the original script this was with a brass candlestick, taken from the mantlepiece. Clearly there was no way this was going to work with two metre distance, so we sat down to figure out what we could do and what we came up with turned out to be way more terrifying and breathtaking.
"When Malone gets up and launches himself towards Harriet, you've almost forgotten about the gun he brought, so when Dawn picks it up and shoots him not once but three times, it's a real edge of your seat moment.
"It actually made the scenes stronger, as whereas before you could have wondered if Dawn had intended to kill Malone with the candlestick, this left you with no doubt what three bullets meant.
"It made it so the women felt they had no option but to choose to bury the body instead of calling the police."
Related: Emmerdale star Olivia Bromley "shocked" by Dawn Taylor and DI Malone outcome
On reflection, the show's team felt it was actually more fitting to introduce the twist of Malone trying to tempt Dawn with heroin, which wasn't in the original scripts.
Laura said: "We decided to add in the plan that Malone would force Dawn to take a syringe of heroin and make it look like an accidental overdose.
"What really worked with this was it was drawing on Dawn's dark history, and it was bringing the story full circle too – Malone was in the show because of drugs, so it was only fitting they featured in his demise too.
"The next part of the episodes played out fairly similarly with the discussion of what to do, Dawn's sheer panic and Harriet being the stronger one taking control. This cut against Will and Billy in the pub, laughing as they got ridiculously drunk."
Related: 8 huge Emmerdale spoilers for next week
Laura also confirmed that it was always the plan for Malone to be a short-term character who'd ultimately be killed off.
She recalled: "When we shut down filming, we were a week off starting to shoot Malone's murder. We had spent months carefully crafting the storyline. This was a story we had embarked on knowing exactly how it ended. We had been building to this moment since Malone first appeared.
"We had spent weeks finessing the scripts and [director] Duncan Foster and I had spent hours on set working out and choreographing every move. We had discussed every tiny detail and I knew all that hard work needed to now be scrapped and we almost needed to start again!
"What I hadn't realised at that point is that changing everything would ultimately make it more dramatic, exciting and thrilling than it had ever been."
Emmerdale currently airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7pm on ITV.
We would encourage anyone who identifies with the topics raised in this article to reach out. Organisations who can offer support include Samaritans on 116 123 (www.samaritans.org) or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (www.mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
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