The following article contains spoilers from an episode of Emmerdale that hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but is available to view on ITVX.
Tom King’s (James Chase) determination to get Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) as far away from her family as possible continued in Wednesday’s (July 3) episode of Emmerdale, as he began the process of moving.
In recent instalments of the ITV soap, Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) has grown suspicious of Belle and Tom’s relationship. She attempted to stage an intervention with other members of the Dingle clan, but Belle felt uncomfortable and couldn’t bring herself to open up.
Outside the pub, Charity was very close to discovering Belle is being abused by her husband, but Tom then arrived, causing Belle to panic and run off.
The difficult dynamic between Charity and Belle hasn’t been resolved yet. During her walk with Piper, Belle was stopped by Charity, who tried to move past what had happened.
Belle found it difficult to reconnect with Charity and instead, she grew defensive of Tom and their marriage.
Meanwhile, at home, Tom was dressed up in a suit, attending a zoom call interview.
The lady on the call explained to Tom that if he was to be offered this new job, it would require moving to a very remote part of Wales. This didn’t seem an issue for Tom because of course, to him, a house in the middle of nowhere would be the perfect place to trap Belle.
When she returned home from her walk, Tom turned the focus to them potentially going on holiday.
Rather than plant a seed about a few weeks in a sunny place overseas, Tom proposed spending time in the Welsh countryside.
Tom showed Belle a picture of the house they’d potentially stay in and said they can go when he’s feeling a bit better. Belle thought it was a perfect idea.
As she made her way into the kitchen, Tom smirked. He said that according to the other people who have visited, once they get to the house…they’ll never want to leave.
‘Belle and Tom is obviously a huge storyline for us at the moment, an incredibly important if not difficult storyline to watch at moments. It’s resonating with our audience because it’s such a huge, real issue’, new Emmerdale producer Sophie Roper said.
‘We’re continuing with that story and trying to be really truthful to those kind of relationships. We’ve got a special episode coming up that sees Tom and Belle head off to Wales on a trip away together.
‘Tom is very much isolating Belle from her family, from her surroundings, from everything that she knows and loves, which is very much unfortunately a typical trait of abusers.
‘It will be difficult drama at moments, but a really important message and a really important story we’re keen to continue to tell.’
