Emmerdale scene gives away John Sugden's identity as real name revealed

The real name of villain John Sugden was confirmed it seems on Thursday night.

The latest episode of the soap featured a scene with a new character who appeared to know John, played by actor Oliver Farnworth. Amid theories that John was actually someone else and had stolen 'the real John's' identity, the truth was revealed in a scene with

Fans had been predicting John was actually Aidan Moore, and the mystery man in the hospital bed was the real John. But a scene on Thursday confirmed that the man in the bed was actually Aidan, identified when John said his name while speaking to the man who was in a coma.

Prior to this, we seemed to find out the truth about John's identity and who he was, as Cathleen, the mother of Aidan, spoke to him. She said his name and called him John, telling him she was happy to see him after so long.

With that it seemed clear that John was definitely John Sugden after all, possibly ruling out the theory that he was someone else. The truth about Aidan definitely ruled out that this was John's true identity too.

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Meanwhile, viewers tuning into the soap may have recognised a familiar face. 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.

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 .