outfits causing Lisa's dress to become covered in mud. After the wedding, celebrations were held in the pub and Lisa went home to get changed as she did not want her wedding photos to be of her covered in mud. Zak went to find her and found her asleep on the sofa but when he tried to wake her up he realized that she had died. Casting Steve Halliwell joined Emmerdale as Zak in September 1994. He explained that Zak was brought in to fight Ned Glover (Johnny Leeze), whom he lashed out at following the death of his son Ben. Halliwell revealed that he was only supposed to be in the show for two episodes, but he tried to "make a mark" and hoped that he would be asked back. Zak was introduced along with the rest of the Dingle family to "run riot through the rural tranquillity and put the muck back into the mix". The family were initially planned to be "nothing more than a bit of spot of bother over a couple of episodes." The Dingles celebrated their ten year anniversary in 2005. In 2003, it was announced Halliwell was to take a break. This led him to comment that he had "no axe to grind" and it wasn't "about salary or storylines" and added "I love Zak, I love Emmerdale, but I've asked for a spell out to spend some quality time with my family and friends". In 2010, Halliwell said that his casting in Emmerdale was "the greatest break in my professional life". In September 2018 Halliwell had to take five months off from Emmerdale for health reasons, which he later revealed was due to having heart surgery. Halliwell returned to play Zak on 13 May 2019. Halliwell then left again in October 2019 with a storyline where he leaves to help Debbie in Scotland. Due to return sometime in 2020, Halliwell’s return to filming was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Zak made his first reappearance alongside relative Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb) in the episode first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 18 January 2021. Characterisation ITV describe him as the "patriarch" of the Dingle family, adding he is "ostensibly a scrap dealer and pig farmer" although he spends "most of his time either doing nothing at all, or dreaming up scams and schemes". They also labelled him as occasionally being "a violent man"