Mark Charnock's Emmerdale friends send birthday wishes

Mark Charnock\'s \'Emmerdale\' cast mates have wished him a happy birthday.

The soap star turned 52 on Friday (28.08.20) and there were plenty of his fellow actors lining up to send him sweet messages throughout the day.

Reece Dinsdale - who joined the ITV show as Paul Ashdale this year - led the way, as he shared a snap of his cast mate and wrote: "A very, VERY Happy Birthday to this extremely lovely man... @markcharnock

"And I get to act with him in The Woolpack this morning, too!"

Former Del Dingle actress Hayley Tamaddon - who appeared on the soap from 2005 to 2007 - asked Reece to pass on a message of sorts.

She replied: "Give him a socially distant hug from me please xxxxxx (sic)"

Amy Wyatt star Natalie Ann Jamieson - who joined the cast in March last year - included a beer emoji, and commented: "Happy Birthday @markcharnock Have a fab one x x (sic)"

And \'Coronation Street\' actor Charlie Condou (Marcus Dent) simply wrote: "Happy birthday mate x"

Mark has been on set shooting new \'Emmerdale\' episodes, but he previously revealed he was "proud" of the show for taking on the challenge of airing special lockdown episodes during the coronavirus pandemic.

In the sixth and final lockdown special, his character Marlon Dingle was forced to quarantine with his arch-nemesis Al Chapman (Michael Wildman).

He said at the time: "I\'m rather proud of us. Soaps are not really like any other form of drama. They exist in the immediate reality of the audience, concurrently with the audience\'s present.

"You can use a soap for escapism, but I think we also have a social responsibility.

"You can\'t hide from the fact people have been going through this, and I think the audience want to see what the characters they are interested in are doing during lockdown.

"It\'s basically all about meetings of minds, and how we can all do better. I\'m rather proud of it actually."