Emmerdale’s Christmas Day episode took a sinister turn when April Windsor, played by actress Amelia Flanagan, disappeared. Away from the hard-hitting storylines, the star enjoys a quiet life with her family

A worrying twist on Emmerdale this Christmas has seen teenager April Windsor vanish from her home.

The ITV storyline sees her dad, Marlon Dingle, and their loved ones frantically search to find the troubled 15-year-old who found herself recently lashing out at her family after getting drunk. The teen is played by Amelia Flanagan, who has been in the role since 2014, and has bagged herself several accolades for her stand-out performances.

And she is not the only one representing the Flanagan family in the world of soaps as acting runs in her family. Amelia has two younger siblings in rival ITV soap Coronation Street – Isabella and William Flanagan. Her younger sister plays Fiz’s daughter, Hope Stape, while her brother plays Hope’s cousin Joseph Brown, son of Chesney.

It’s a family affair ( 
Image:
instagram/ameliaflanagan08)

Amelia Flanagan joined Emmerdale in 2014 ( 
Image:
WireImage)
Amelia, who is now 16, has been heavily praised for her performances over the years, winning Best Young Actor at the Insider Soap Awards for three years in a row and The British Soap Awards’ Best Young Performance in 2015.

But as her siblings also appear on screen, she’s awkwardly had to compete against them at award shows. Both Amelia and Isabella were nominated at the Inside Soap Awards for the Best Young Performer award in 2022, but the younger sister ended up winning the gong.

At the bash, Isabella opened up about her sister’s influence, which inspired her to get into TV. Isabella said: “I’ve wanted to be on TV for a long time, my sister has been in Emmerdale since she was five and I love watching her, my audition was a really fun script and I was so excited when Ology [Flanagan’s casting agency] rang my mum to give us the good news.

“Everyone at Corrie is lovely and friendly and the canteen serves amazing food, I’m really looking forward to watching myself on the telly!” The young star also opened up about their conflicting careers, creating tension at home.

She said: “There are so many debates at home whenever there are awards ceremonies. Me and my brother are team Corrie and my sister is obviously team Emmerdale, so it does get a bit heated sometimes!” But she admitted the rivalry is just a bit of fun.

“It’s never competitive,” she added. Away from the disagreements, having actor siblings also comes in handy, with the sisters able to run their lines together. Amelia revealed: “I’ve run lines with Bella where she’s played Hope and I’ve pretended to be a character from Coronation Street, and she’s done the same with me, so it’s fun!”

Amelia’s most recent hard-hitting storyline sees her on-screen dad Marlon go to his daughter’s room over Christmas, and was terrified to find her gone without a trace. With no clue as to where she is and unable to contact her, the search began and fears spread about the situation.

New teasers appeared to reveal the reason behind her vanishing act, or at least part of it. It seems she has not been taken and had actually left by her own doing. The spoilers detail Marlon uncovering his daughter has run away from home, wanting and choosing to go missing after weeks of torment.

In upcoming scenes, Marlon begins to discover the devastating reasons why his daughter fled. Soon enough he’s finding things out about his child he didn’t know. It would appear that April was leading a life that her father, and maybe others, was completely unaware of.