Emmerdale viewers will meet Ruby’s mum Helen, played by

Sharon Maughan, in tonight’s episode (Tuesday, September 17).

Helen has not seen Ruby in 30 years. However, she’s dying and wants

to reconnect with her estranged daughter before it’s too late. Ruby herself arrived in the village earlier this year as the wife of Caleb, and now her mum is set to be introduced too.

Here’s everything we know about Ruby and Helen’s relationship in Emmerdale as well as where you’ve seen Sharon Maughan before.

What is Helen’s story?

Ruby’s estrangement from her parents is due to their disapproval over her relationship with Caleb.

Speaking about the past, William Ash, who plays Caleb explained: “They hated him because he’d come out of a care home, he didn’t have any family and thought he was beneath their daughter. So, Helen was really snobby and judgemental. Helen and Ruby’s dad gave Ruby an ultimatum. They basically said ‘look if you want to be with this boy then we don’t want anything to do with you’. They basically just cut Ruby dead.”

Caleb visits Helen, who is terminally ill, in hospital. Despite her situation, they argue and he eventually agrees to get Ruby to visit Helen if she sends him £100,000. But will the plan work?

Speaking about working with Sharon Maughan, who plays Helen, William confirmed that Helen will not be a permanent character.

“She is an amazing actress because she only comes in for two episodes,” he said. “We only had a day filming. We were doing all these intense scenes together in a hospital room, in a private hospital, just me and her going at each other really.

“She was amazing. It is hard to come into any show, to just do one day, and have lots of intense scenes. But she was fantastic and really a force of nature really.”

What else has Sharon Maughan been in?

The 74-year-old actress definitely has longevity on her side and has been acting since the early 1970s.

Depending on your era, there are various things you could know Sharon from. One of her most famous gigs was as part of the Gold Blend couple alongside Anthony Head in the 1980s.

She has had a steady flow of work and appeared in episodes of many a TV show, including The Enigma Files, Dombey & Son, Inspector Morse, Murder She Wrote, Heartbeat and The Bill.

Her biggest job saw her star in over 100 episodes of hospital soap Holby City, where she played staff nurse Tricia Williams in the early 2000s, who was the mum of popular character Chrissie.

Tricia survived breast cancer, only to be involved in a car crash. Her family had opposing views on what to do, but ultimately they decided to switch off her life support machine.

Famous family

Her name doesn’t give it away, but Sharon Maughan has a famous husband – she is married to legendary actor Trevor Eve.

Most recently, you’d have seen Trevor in crime drama Unforgotten and spy drama Strike Back, but his most famous role came in Waking the Dead, where he played Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd throughout it’s nine-series run.

Sharon and Trevor married in 1980 and have three children together, one of whom, Alice, has also gone into acting.

In 2010, Trevor, Sharon and Alice all appeared in the film She’s Out of My League playing father, mother and daughter.

That’s one talented family!