Kim rushed to hospital after terrifying Emmerdale incident

It wouldn’t be a proper soap Christmas without at least one character ending up in hospital, and in Emmerdale this year that character is none other than Kim Tate (Claire King).

Kim and her husband Will Taylor (Dean Andrews) have been plotting and counter-plotting against each other for some time – a situation that Claire King refers to as ‘War of the Roses,’ after the 1989 comedy about an outrageously bitter divorce battle.

After Will made the huge mistake of sleeping with his ex, Rose Jackson (Christine Tremarco), Kim wasted no time in making him pay by setting up an elaborate blackmail plot and faking her own kidnap.

On that occasion Will ended up at the bottom of a freshly-dug grave. He survived that ordeal and also survived when Ross Barton (Mike Parr) botched an attempt to get him out of the village – on Kim’s behalf – and thought he’d k.i.l.l.e.d him.

By Christmas, however, things are feeling more settled between the warring couple.

‘I think she does love him,’ Claire said. ‘It’s those eyes! It’s those blue eyes! She does still love him but she doesn’t know that he’s kind of working behind her back.’

Ready to give the relationship another chance, Kim is unaware that Will is secretly plotting against her with her financial advisor Peter (David Michaels) – the man Kim briefly had a revenge fling with in the wake of Will’s betrayal.

Claire set the scene for what happens just before Christmas, when Kim is involved in an accident that changes everything.

‘Kim goes riding on Christmas Eve. She takes Ice out for a ride,’ she told us.

‘Ice rears up and gets spooked. Will finds her on the ground with Ice just roaming about free. She ends up in hospital.’

The shock of seeing Kim’s horse wandering free and then finding Kim injured on the ground is a huge wake-up call for Will.

‘He has a bit of a jolt of realisation and thinks, “Actually I do love this woman. I’d better call the whole thing off. I really do love her,”’ Claire explained. ‘So he goes to see her in hospital and says, “Why don’t we renew our vows?” They’re going to renew their vows on Christmas Day, so it’s kind of all happy back together again. He calls Peter to say it’s all off.’

If all of this is pointing to a happy-ever-after and a cosy Boxing Day for the warring couple, there are more twists to come as there’s a flash-forward scene that points to a violent struggle at Home Farm, with the Christmas tree toppled to the ground and signs of a struggle while eerie music plays.

Claire wouldn’t give any hints about what’s occurred – ‘There’s some sort of disturbance. That’s all I can say.’

After this most toxic of Christmases, Claire King is hoping that her character survives and gets involved in a lot more drama in 2025 – and she’s hoping that Kim reignites her feud with Caleb Miligan (William Ash) and his family.

‘I think there’s quite a good dynamic possibly in the future with the Tate household versus the Fox-Miligan/Dingle household – you never know who’s related to who in that lot, either!’ She laughed. ‘I lose track! I think there’s a dynamic there against the two powerhouses.’

As to whether Kim and Will will still be married – or even alive – in the new year we’ll have to wait and see, but Claire is hoping so because she likes the relationship between them.

‘We’ve enjoyed playing the toxic side of it, but I think they’re good together because he stands up for himself, he’s not a pussy with her. We like it and we like working together as well. It’s good, we’ve got a nice team here at Home Farm.’