Rodney Blackstock

Infobox Emmerdale character 2


name=Rodney Blackstock
portrayer=Patrick Mower
years=2000—
born= 12 December 1949
death=
home=Mill Brook Cottage
occupation=Businessman
family=
spouse = Diane Lambert
Maureen Blackstock
sons = Paul Lambert
daughters= Bernice Thomas
Nicola De Souza
granddaughters = Gabby Thomas
Diane Jnr.
first = 24 October 2000
last=

Rodney Blackstock is a fictional character on the ITV soap opera "Emmerdale". He is played by Patrick Mower.

About Rodney

When Rodney Blackstock turned up in Emmerdale, no one was more surprised to see him than his ex-wife Diane. Having been deserted by him when their daughter Bernice was just five years old, Rodney hadn’t so much as sent a postcard since. He’d been invited to meet Bernice by her fiancé Ashley Thomas - who had no idea of their troubled history. When Bernice realised he was her father, she went mad at Ashley and almost cancelled their wedding. But on Christmas Day 2000, Rodney looked on proudly as his eldest daughter got married.

Lothario

Settling into life in the village, the aging Romeo started dating new barmaid Louise Appleton. Rich, suave and charming, Rodney had never had much trouble attracting the ladies - but always had problems with sticking with just the one. Ever since he’d come back, Rodney and his ex-wife had fought like cat and dog but there was clearly still an underlying attraction there. When the former spouses found themselves in bed together, Louise left Rodney and he threw himself into work again.

Paternal Issues

Meanwhile, Rodney was delighted when his youngest daughter Nicola arrived in Emmerdale, desperate to get to know Bernice. It looked like they would be friends forever until chef Carlos Diaz turned up to spoil the party. Bernice suffered a miscarriage and started sleeping with Carlos, who was already dating Nicola. Desperate to hold on to him, Nicola pretended she was pregnant and got Rodney to shell out for a huge wedding day - but the truth came out, and Nicola was left heartbroken.

Valerie Lambert

When Bernice left the village a few months later, Rodney was devastated. As far as women are concerned, Rodney enjoyed a brief fling with Steph Stokes in 2003, but in 2004 his life got much more complicated by the arrival of Diane’s sister Val Lambert. Thrilled to discover Rodney was still handsome and now rich too, Val was quick to start dating him and enjoyed all the luxuries Rodney’s wealth afforded her.However, while he enjoyed spending time with Val, Rodney was still in love with Diane. When she discovered she had colon cancer in 2004, Rodney was horrified and declared his undying love to her. However, she wasn’t looking to rekindle their relationship - and rejected him in favour of boyfriend Jack Sugden. When Diane and Jack got married, Rodney and Val had a vicious showdown outside the church in which it’s revealed that Val’s homosexual drag queen son Paul is in fact Rodney’s son.

Rodney's Children

Horrified and unable to cope with Paul’s sexuality, Rodney struggled to form a bond with his son and the pair spent months at loggerheads before they finally reconciled. Diane couldn’t believe that her sister and her ex-husband had been having an affair behind her back when they were married, but was so happy with Jack that she forgave them both. Meanwhile, Rodney started getting closely entangled in his children’s love lives. Nicola was dating kindly fishmonger Simon Meredith and no one was more delighted than Rodney when they got engaged.

Lesley and Kelly

However, the arrival of Simon’s mother Lesley proved a bit of a headache for him. Lesley was absolutely smitten with Rodney and always hoped they might get together. So imagine her delight when the two of them got blind drunk one night and spent a steamy night together! The next day, Rodney was wracked with guilt, knowing he wasn’t attracted to Lesley. Meanwhile, she was already dreaming of a happily ever after. Fortunately for Rodney it wasn’t him who ended up putting Leslie in the picture. Spiteful Kelly Windsor decided to mark Lesley’s card by taking her place at an event Rodney was attending and leaving her both humiliated and heartbroken. What started off as a bit of a fling became a more serious relationship between Kelly and Rodney. But while he was enjoying some romantic luck, his children’s relationships were about to fall spectacularly apart!

Nicola's Departure

Nicola and Simon’s romance had been on the rocks for a while, since his business had fallen apart and they’d been forced to cut back drastically. In boredom, Nicola had developed a huge crush on Ivan Jones, their lodger and the boyfriend of her half-brother Paul! When Simon and Nicola split, she became fixated on Ivan and tried to lure him into bed repeatedly. When Lesley spotted them half-dressed, she assumed they were having an affair and Nicola let her. As accusations flew, Rodney took Nicola’s side, believing Ivan had been messing her about. When the truth of Nicola’s duplicity was revealed, Rodney felt horribly embarrassed and realized he’d set his relationship with Paul back by a pretty long way. It took time but now father and son are reconciled, to the point where Rodney was even in charge of planning Paul's wedding to Jonny Foster.

Financial Situation

Rodney lost both his house and antiques business due to owing a large amount of money to the Inland Tax Revenue. Rodney claimed at the time that "Dodging tax was in his blood!" Although he had suspected this might have happened, the large stashes of money he had hidden were all found, and none by him!He took jobs ranging from a solar panel salesman to a window cleaner, but found permanent employment at Home Farm, under the King Brothers, Matthew King, Jimmy King and Carl King. In 2008 he followed Carl to work for their rival, Donald De Souza.

Nicola's Return

Nicola returned recently, after a break of eighteen months, and, despite initial promises to make amends for her past misdemeanours, she soon showed her true colours by threatening to take David Metcalfe away from Jasmine Thomas, and mocking her brother about Ivan. She was also revealed to be the widow of Donald De Souza, only for everyone to learn Donald was actually alive and hidden away comatose. Rodney, still unable to see through his daughter's crocodile tears, moved in with her after Paul forced him to decide between the two of them. Rodney soon patched up his relationship with Paul and very acrimoniously worked with Val to plan the stag do and reception for their son's civil partnership.

Upon learning Nicola was homeless, Rodney (who had no idea she'd tried to kill Donald) rented Mill Brook Cottage from the Kings, agreeing to live with his daughter as long as she paid half the rent.

Rollercoaster Rod

Laurel and Ashley suffered the awful tragedy of losing their baby to cot death, then learned their son had actually been switched at birth. The months they spent on these problems traumatized Gabby, and as she felt alone, she spent much of her time staying with grandfather Rodney and confiding her problems in him. Rodney wrote and illustrated a book, Rollercoaster Rod, loosely based on his fairground days, with such characters as Terible Trixie (a Nicola double) and "Derek Bollard" (Eric Pollard).

When Nicola found out what she'd been the inspiration for, she was none too pleased, but she began to sense the moneymaking potential behind the book. After repeatedly trying and failing to get Rodney to publish the book, she went to a publishing firm behind his back. They told her she needed to write several more books. David tried to find some other stories around Rodney's house, to the point of "accidentally" leaving a tape recorder when Rodney was reading a story to Gabby (the story he read was actually many years old and David only stopped Nicola from committing plagiarism in the nick of time). Nicola finally told David she'd write the other stories herself.

External links

* [http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=3670 Rodney Blackstock] at itv.com