Emotions were stirred up in Monday (March 18)’s Emmerdale when GP Manpreet Sharma (Rebecca Sarker) decided to nip a potentially disruptive situation in the bud.
On the way in to work at Brook Cottage surgery, Manpreet had spotted her practice partner, fellow GP Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson), showing newish receptionist Ella Forster (Paula Lane) how to deal with a tricky door lock. And things were looking more than a little bit flirtatious between them.
Previously we’ve seen that Liam is rather taken with his attractive and feisty new colleague and they bonded over a shared love of houseplants when Manpreet took exception to Ella putting her mother-in-law’s-tongue (it’s a plant) on the reception desk.
So when Manpreet saw Liam and Ella together, she was a bit worried and decided that something needed to be said.
A previous workplace affair between Liam and nurse Wendy (Susan Cookson) caused all sorts of trouble when the truth came out about what they’d been up to – culminating in Wendy’s partner, Bob (Tony Audenshaw), having a heart attack because he got so wound up.
Manpreet certainly didn’t want a repeat of that kind of thing so she assembled her staff team of Liam, Ella and Wendy in her office for a little chat about ‘Appropriate behaviour in the workplace.’
‘Are you looking at me? Why are you looking at me?’ a rattled Liam wanted to know. Manpreet insisted her remarks weren’t aimed at anyone in particular and offered a purely hypothetical scenario involving work colleagues ‘John’ and ‘Rose.’
As she related how ‘Rose’ had been going through some family problems and ‘John’ had been comforting her and wiping away her tears, Wendy’s shoulders slumped as she recognised that Manpreet was talking about her and Liam.
Ella couldn’t see any problem with the scenario; Wendy thought it was only a problem if the hypothetical doctor ‘made a habit of it.’ And Liam thought Manpreet was ‘being a bit unfair on the doctor. He sounds like a nice guy.’
Wendy was getting a bit wound up and suggested the doctor was ‘Too nice. Maybe nice can get you into trouble.’
As the former lovers started to bicker Manpreet tried to calm things down. Ella, meanwhile, had realised the whole thing had moved from hypothetical to something very real and very awkward indeed and excused herself to make a brew – while Liam and Wendy quietly seethed at each other.
It’s fair to say that Manpreet’s ‘team building’ exercise had had precisely the opposite effect.
