Sandy Thomas is a fictional character from the British soap opera Emmerdale, played by Freddie Jones. Sandy was introduced as the father of Ashley Thomas (John Middleton). He made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 6 November 2005. The character departed for a while in March 2008, but returned to the show in February 2009. On 6 February 2018 it was confirmed that Jones had filmed his final episode and he made his final appearance as Sandy on 19 February 2018.