Duncan Preston quits Emmerdale

Duncan Preston has quit \'Emmerdale\'.

The soap stalwart - who has also starred in the likes of \'Coronation Street\' and \'Holby City\' - is to depart the Dales this week as his character Doug Potts, the father of Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy), 13 years after joining the ITV soap.

A show insider told The Sun Online: "Duncan\'s already filmed his final scenes at Emmerdale and fans will see Doug\'s exit onscreen later this week."

And \'Emmerdale\' confirmed there are "no plans" for Duncan to reprise his role.

One of the 73-year-old star\'s recently storylines saw his character Doug taking cannabis to help with a back issue.

Doug was also involved when Chris Kamara made a cameo in \'Emmerdale\'.

The former footballer appeared in the ITV soap as a manager of a local football team who went up against a side made of the villagers, who included Doug and Jimmy King (Nick Miles).

The \'Soccer Saturday\' pundit - who is nicknamed Kammy - said: "I watch \'Emmerdale\' with my wife and my son, in fact my son is a massive \'Emmerdale\' fan so if I was coming down, they had to come too.

"It was a great day and I loved it! I essentially got to play myself and not a character, but hopefully that\'ll be the next thing along the line."

Duncan previously starred as Clifford in soap parody \'Acorn Antiques\', and he portrayed Stan in the sitcom \'Dinnerladies\'.

What\'s more, he played DS Todd in BBC One soap \'EastEnders\' in 1987.