Emmerdale Aidan's mum actress Julia Watson's past TV roles as Cathleen debuts

There was a new character on on Thursday night, and she may be a familiar face to many.

Warning, this story contains details from Thursday's episode that dropped on ITVX on Thursday morning ahead of 7:30PM transmission. Cathleen, the mum of Aidan Moore, debuted in scenes with John Sugden in the latest episode of the soap. She's played by actress Julia Watson, who has been in many TV shows over the years.

At first we didn't know who the man in the hospital bed was, who both John and Cathleen were visiting. Soon Cathleen revealed all with it clear she knew John.

Not only that but she cleared up any confusion surrounding John's real identity after fans believed he was really Aidan. Cathleen called John 'John' and soon it was revealed it was Aidan who was in the bed, while spoilers for next week also appeared to confirm this.

John had claimed to everyone he knew that Aidan was dead, but he's alive and in a coma. He's been in this state since whatever happened while they were in the army, and Thursday's episode saw new revelations about their link and what happened revealed.

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As for Cathleen, she visits her son and prays for a miracle, sure he will wake up one day. She told John it was only a matter of time before he regained consciousness.

It's not known how long she will be on the ITV soap for, while the actress playing her has been in a number of other shows. From soaps to series, she has quite the credit list and might be a familiar face to viewers tuning in to Emmerdale.

Last year Julia appeared in as Hilda Flockhart. Julia has also appeared on axed soap Doctors more than once, across 2005 to 2023. Midsomer Murders, Not Going Out and A Touch of Frost are also on her credentials list.

Actress Julia may be most known for her role in Casualty as Barbara, also known as Baz, with her appearing in 90 episodes. She was the partner of Charlie Fairhead at one point, while she was killed off later on in the show.

She featured in a clip during Charlie's final episode in 2024. Julia's debut as Cathleen comes as John's lie about Aidan was exposed.

The mystery surrounding what happened to Aidan has rumbled on for months. New spoilers have revealed that Aidan is alive though, while he remains in a coma in hospital.

John's sister Victoria Sugden find this out next week when she meets with one of John's old army mates, Connor. Victoria then goes to visit Aidan at the hospital, reeling over what she has been told.

She then confronts John with what she's found out and asks him to explain his lies. But how will John get out of this one?

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on , , , , , and .