Emmerdale boss confirms when Belle and Tom abuse plot ends – and fans won’t be happy
Tom King's reign of terror is set to come to an end but fans have to wait months for the village villain to get his comeuppance as abuse storyline "set to esculate"
Emmerdale boss Laura Shaw has opened up on the gripping Tom King and Belle Dingle domestic abuse storyline.
Tom has turned violent towards his wife in recent scenes of the ITV soap and things are only set to get worse when he learns Belle has had an abortion after claiming to have suffered a miscarriage.
Next week, Tom is left lifeless after accidentally electrocuting himself while trashing a barn during one of his violent rages. While spoilers remain coy over whether or not he survives the incident, it has been confirmed that his reign of terror is far from over.
Laura told Daily Star and other press that they producers have had their ending planned for the storyline since the beginning, and revealed the gripping plot will run until the end of the 2024 despite fans begging the storyline to come to an end.
She shared the Emmerdale team’s hopes to reflect the storyline realistically, not wanting it to be a short plot for that reason. Laura said: “We said right from the beginning we wanted to tell the story as truthfully and authentically as we can.
This isn’t something that is over in a couple of weeks, it goes on for a long length of time. Viewers can expect the storyline to run until the end of this year.”
“I think I’ve always had a good idea of how we’d want it to end. We’ve found new twists and turns as it’s gone through, but I’ve always had a picture in my head of where it would end. What we will see is Tom finding different ways to manipulate Belle and to control Belle so we will see an escalation.”
Despite fans having to wait months to find out if Tom gets his comeuppance, actor James Chase teased that his character will be caught out eventually.
The soap star explained: “I think it has to happen because it’s what he deserves. He can’t get away with it. I don’t know to what extent that would be, as to how the storyline would end with Tom, but I think it would have to be something like that because she needs justice for what happened to Belle.
“Also, the viewer needs to see Belle win at the very end or the very least for him to lose. I definitely think at least prison.”.