Emmerdale’s Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) has never before been bothered by a brush with the law, but there’s a first time for everything.
Punching someone’s lights out, thieving a car. Those are crimes more befitting of his rap sheet. Never in a million years did he think he’d be adding peeing on a hedge to that.
Cain is trying to return to normal life. He recently had the op for his prostate cancer, but it left him with side effects. He woke from the surgery to find he had a catheter and initially felt his world fall apart when he thought that it meant he’d be wearing one for life.
He was relieved to learn it was temporary, as are some other post-op side effects. But Cain sees his body’s need for recovery as a weakness and is shrouded in shame that his bodily functions are up the creek and out of his control.
Before the op, his biggest fear was not being able to perform for his sex-hungry wife Moira (Natalie J Robb). He tried to end his marriage, and when that didn’t work, he tried to cancel the life-saving operation and instead risk death to preserve his sexual function.
Now his biggest fear is needing a wee every five minutes for the rest of his life.
Things are looking up when he gets the catheter removed and he starts to believe that maybe, just maybe, life will return to normal.
He heads to the Woolpack to celebrate and indulges in a pint, but this is where his problems begin. As Caleb Miligan (William Ash) tells him to take it easy, he does the exact opposite and necks a whiskey.
As he stumbles back home, Cain’s prostate issues catch him off guard and he is caught short – a side effect of the op is more urgency to urinate.
Thinking nothing of it, he whacks out little Cain and pees at the side of the road.
It’s bad timing for Cain as it’s the moment the boys in blue come past. Cain is instantly arrested for urinating in public as well as being drunk and disorderly.
Cain is dumped in a cell and left to rage as PC Swirling (Andy Moore) offers him some sweatpants. Cain doesn’t do well with embarrassment and is forced to stew overnight. He is too ashamed to tell Moira what’s happened, so it’s yet another secret racked up between them.
The experience leaves him with a new anxiety – being too far away from a toilet. Cain with anxiety is a whole new Cain.
Will he confess his fears to Moira or will this further drive a wedge between them?
