Tuesday (January 2)’s Emmerdale dealt with the repercussions of the devastating car crash that claimed the life of Heath Hope (Sebastian Dowling) on New Year’s Eve.
Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw) was obviously in shock and was refusing to see his daughter Cathy Hope (Gabrielle Dowling), saying that ‘My son’s dead because of his sister.’ In fact, he refused to budge from the hospital until he’d seen his son’s body to say goodbye to him.
In the village, the residents were all left reeling from the news. An emotional Tracy Metcalfe (Amy Walsh) hugged her daughter Frankie (Eden Ratcliffe-Knights) to her extra tightly – while Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) and Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) left flowers outside the B&B.
Cathy and Angelica were questioned by the police
Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) had the difficult task of breaking the news to April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) that her friend was dead. Poor April blamed herself for not doing more to stop Cathy stealing the car.
For the survivors of the crash, Cathy and Angelica King (Rebecca Bakes), the next hurdle to be faced was being questioned by the police after being arrested.
With Brenda Walker (Lesley Dunlop) by her side, Cathy told the police officer that it had been her idea to take the car. She also said she’d learned to drive while she was staying with her brother Scott in the Lake District, on a farm track.
But, crucially, although she drove the car away from the village she insisted she hadn’t been driving when the crash happened. She said Angelica had.
This was put to Angelica, who was being questioned in another room. She denied that she was driving, but she looked a bit shifty while she was saying it.
In the previous episode, the only person we actually saw driving the car was Cathy, but in one scene Heath was getting frustrated with her slow speed and told her, ‘Hurry up and put your foot down, or one of us will drive.’
We know that Heath was still in the back seat after the crash, but both the girls had already got out of the car when Bob and Wendy Posner (Susan Cookson) arrived so it could have been either Cathy or Angelica in the driving seat when the fatal accident happened.
Was Angelica the driver? Will she admit the truth if so?
Meanwhile Brenda has promised to stand by Cathy ‘through thick and thin,’ and Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler) will fight like a tiger for her daughter, so it’s going to be a messy and traumatic situation for everyone involved as the truth is revealed.
Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw told us that this tragedy is ‘going to affect two of our most-loved families. It’s ultimately going to tear friendships apart and change the dynamics of one of those families forever.’
