Woman ‘brought to tears’ after finding dad watching Emmerdale with her late mum

A daughter was overcome when she visited her dad and witnessed a precious moment between him and her late mum as he lay in bed watching TV.

Sarah Ardley’s dad Roy Bateman would always try to avoid watching ITV’s Emmerdale when his wife Sue was alive. She adored the soaps, but Roy wasn’t keen on the farming drama and would normally find something else to do when it came on.

Mum of two Sarah, 52, from Epsom, Surrey said: “She loved all her soaps so they’d take a cup of tea up to their bedroom and watch them together.

“Emmerdale was her favourite but he wasn’t particularly keen on it so that’s when he might’ve left the room and done other things.”

Tragically last July while on a family holiday to Portugal, Sue, who was 73 at the time, passed away due to complications with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Sarah went to visit her widowed dad, 77, who lives in Wigan Greater Manchester with her sister who cares for him, at the beginning of February and happened upon a heartrending moment.

When she went upstairs to check on him, the devoted daughter discovered her dad lying in bed watching Emmerdale while tightly clutching a framed picture of her ‘beautiful’ mum. “I crept upstairs and there he was lying with a photo about to watch it. It brought tears to my eyes,” recalls Sarah. “It melted my heart but in a good way.”

A couple of weeks ago when Roy went to stay with Sarah, she asked him about what she had witnessed and he told her that although it upsets him sometimes, he watches it for her mum so she can keep up with the storylines.

“I just feel like I’m sitting there watching it with her,” Roy said. “Sometimes I sit there and I cry. It upsets me a lot but it is comforting. I think it’s something I’ll do until my dying day.”

His dedication has paid off too because although he’s a staunch Coronation Street fan, Roy is now really into Emmerdale. After Sarah shared a video on TikTok of her dad watching telly with her mum’s photo, the clip went viral and has been viewed over 1.2 million times with users asking her to “pass on a ‘hug from everyone on the internet”.

One of the viewers it seems could have been I’m a Celeb winner and Emmerdale’s very own Danny Miller, who plays Aaron Livesy. Sarah claims he’s contacted them and has arranged for Roy to go on a tour of the set in March. “I’m looking forward to going to the set and Sue is coming with me,” said Roy.