An ill-advised moment of passion caused awkwardness all round on Emmerdale when Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) and Charles Anderson (Kevin Mathurin) ended up in bed together in recent episodes.
The unlikely couple started spending more time together as they discussed plans for the upcoming harvest festival in the village, but it was clear that some of Laurel’s ideas for the event were a bit too radical for Charles and especially his mum, Claudette (Flo Wilson), who is very much a traditionalist and likes things done her way.
In classic rom-com style, Laurel and Charles’s bickering soon led to passion. Charlotte Bellamy pointed out that Laurel was reacting to the break-up of her marriage with Jai (Chris Bisson) and she has ‘previous’ in terms of being attracted to vicars, as her former husband Ashley (John Middleton) was Charles’s predecessor at the church.
‘I think it’s probably a little bit of a rebound, and the fact that he’s got a dog collar on, probably,’ she smiled. ‘It’s a bit of fun, really. And I think after Jai, she needs a bit of fun, doesn’t she?’.
Unfortunately ‘fun’ led to awkwardness between them and Laurel decided to nip things in the bud – much to Charles’s disappointment.
On Monday (September 30)’s episode Charles was dismayed to get to a harvest festival organising meeting at the cafe, only to find Claudette trying and failing to talk Liam (Jonny McPherson) into showcasing his allotment veg at the event.
Liam left, and Charles asked his mum if Laurel was coming, because ‘she had a lot of ideas.’ Claudette replied that the ideas were ‘bad ones.’
Rodney (Patrick Mower) had news. He’d seen Laurel earlier and she’d said she didn’t have time to help with the harvest festival any more. Claudette looked smug, while Charles looked crestfallen. Worse still, Rodney reported that Laurel will no longer be serving on the parish council and wanted Nicola (Nicola Wheeler) to stand in for her.
Rodney was a bit miffed about this because Nicola has a lot on her mind at the moment, what with daughter Angel (Rebecca Bakes) running riot in juvenile detention and nephew Tom King (James Chase) recovering in hospital from being axed in the back. You can see his point.
Claudette was rather pleased by this outcome and insisted she could take Laurel’s place.
She might be able to take Laurel’s place in the harvest festival preparations, but as for the place Laurel now apparently has in Charles’s heart – that’s a gap she can’t fill.
