ITV Emmerdales original Faith Dingle star Gillian Jephcott now as she joins Corrie

When most people think of Emmerdale’s much loved matriarch Faith Dingle, the first name that springs to mind is Sally Dexter, who captured the hearts of the nation with her heartbreaking portrayal of the character’s battle and subsequent death – as a result of breast cancer.

But long before Sally took the reins, the character was portrayed by another familiar face, Gillian Jephcott, who famously played the role from 2000 to 2004.

Now, 18 years after exiting the dales, the actress has once again returned to our screens on rival-soap Coronation Street, this time in the form of social worker Caitlin.

The character first made her debut during last week’s emotional storyline, which saw Gemma Winter accused of intentionally poisoning her step-son Joseph, after he was accidentally given lavender oil to drink.

Concerns were raised after an anxious Gemma took Joseph to A&E twice within a week as he complained of feeling unwell, only for medics to accuse the concerned mum of time-wasting.

However, when he was taken to hospital days later after suffering severe abdominal cramps, the authorities feared Gemma had intentionally harmed him so that they would take her concerns seriously.

This lead to social worker Caitlin being assigned to the case to investigate – something which required Gemma to leave the family home and forbidden from any unsupervised contact with her children until the matter was resolved.

Interestingly, this isn’t Gillian’s first time on the Corrie cobbles either, as she previously appeared in the soap playing a tough prison officer back when the character Hayley Cropper was in jail accused of kidnapping.

After waving goodbye to the Dales in 2004, the actress also went on to be in a number of other television shows such as Doctors, Cutting It and Heartbeat – and in 2011 she was even in an episode of medical drama series Monroe.

In addition to her TV work, Gillian has also worked extensively on the radio, and even appeared on stage in a comedy production entitled I Want That Hair, which followed the lives of three close friends and was set inside a hair salon.

Her most recognisable role however, is of course as the original Faith Dingle – and there was definitely no bad blood between her and her successor, after Sally took the role from 2017 onwards.

The pair even joked about it back in 2021 when they both took part in a televised soap quiz together.

According to theMirror, Gillian joked to Sally: "Well you know if you're ever poorly, I'm here. Understudy."

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