Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins) met John by chance after driving Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell) to the funeral of John’s mother, Barbara.

While Barbara (played by Angela Down) appeared in 1988 as a short-term girlfriend for Jack Sugden (Clive Hornby), making sense of John’s existence, it was never confirmed whether womaniser and family man Jack ever knew he had another son.

Lonely Vic never made any official checks as to whether she and John were genuinely related – not that we imagine the prickly John would have consented to a DNA test!

He couldn’t have cared less about his Sugden roots, and although this was never an indication that he might be lying, might key moments during John’s time in the village point to him being a fraud?

Upon learning who John was soon after their initial fling, his now-husband Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) initially believed he had an agenda.

Then in November 2024, Aaron discovered that Rebecca White (Emily Head) had died and that his ex – and John’s half-brother – the incarcerated Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley), had agreed to son Sebastian being raised by Bex’s aunt.

With Aaron dating John by this point, John was put out by Aaron’s thoughts of Seb, and when John criticised Robert for being a murderer, Aaron jumped to Robert’s defence and threw John out.

The next day, Aaron attended an illegal boxing match at Moira Dingle’s (Natalie J Robb) barn.

John secretly called the police to the venue, and when the boxing promoters fled the scene, Aaron was knocked to the floor with a punch and left in a critical condition.

With his innocent façade, John made a big show of saving Aaron’s life; and Aaron ended up letting down his barriers with John and making a real go of their relationship as a result.

Might this all have been part of John’s plan, or are we reading too much into it? It’s hard not to when it comes to soap land!

Nothing was ever explicitly confirmed about what happened to Aaron back then, or why John reported the fight; yet during a flashback special earlier this year, Aaron’s ordeal was notably included.

Almost every other time John has saved a life has been a calculated set-up, so it’s not too wild a theory to suggest John may have schemed to get Aaron injured, just to move things along and try and erase Robert from his mind.

Of course, if John is an authentic Sugden, sibling rivalry is run of the mill among Emmerdale’s original dynasty; but considering John had never met Robert at the time, he was quite extreme and vehement in his opinion of him.

Was this behaviour down to intense jealousy over Aaron, or did John turn up with a ready-made grudge against Robert, wanting to get closer to the latter’s loved ones?

Might John have some other connection to Robert, who, let’s not forget, repeatedly questioned the validity of John’s link to his family from the moment he returned to the Dales and even asked Vic how well she knew him?

John with Aaron Dingle. ITV

Beyond giving Victoria another relative while she had no one else, and that brief awkwardness over Aaron dating Robert’s brother, John being a Sugden hasn’t added anything to his overall storyline.

There was, after all, always going to be a rivalry between John and Robert because of Aaron.

We’re aware we might be reaching here, and that people from the medic’s backstory have acknowledged him as John Sugden.

But without someone from Sugden lore verifying it as fact, we can’t help holding onto that niggle of doubt.

Imagine an old, familiar face popping in and announcing, to dropped jaws, that whoever he is, John is no son of Jack’s?

Top of our wish list would be Robert’s one-time sister-in-law Kathy Glover (Malandra Burrows).

The only thing missing from this plot is a big twist that no character could see coming, and Imposter John would be just the shocker to pull the rug out from under everyone in his orbit.