Emmerdale spoilers: Eric breaks down amid devastating symptoms and our hearts are breaking

Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell) was nervous at the start of Monday (December 11)’s episode of Emmerdale.

The beloved character has recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and has struggled to come to terms with what the diagnosis might mean for him. Manpreet (Rebecca Sarker) has been encouraging him to attend a support group, hoping that talking to people in a similar position might help him.

At the beginning of the episode he was setting off for the group – but when he got there he was scared to face it and sat outside in his car, tears streaming down his face.

‘This is not fair!’ he lamented, heartbreakingly.

Poor Eric!

Back in the village he tried to pretend he’d gone to the group as Brenda (Lesley Dunlop) questioned him, but she quickly saw through his vague answers. She didn’t say anything at that point.

Later they went to Leyla (Roxy Shahidi)’s to help her and Jacob (Joe-Warren Plant) decorate the Christmas tree. While Leyla was in high spirits Jacob was on edge, as he and Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) had decided to tell his family about their relationship and he’d been trying to find a way to break the news to Leyla. As he tried to pluck up the courage to tell his mum that his new girlfriend is his former almost-step-mum (awkward), Brenda and Eric’s arrival meant the chance slipped away.

As Leyla and Brenda went to get the ‘warmed to perfection’ festive quiches out of the oven and Jacob got busy making the snowballs, Eric sat on the sofa and relaxed for a second – then realised his hand was shaking.

He kept the scary symptom to himself, hoping it would go away. As Jacob, Brenda and Leyla got on with decorating the tree he got up to join them and picked up a tree ornament – but his grip failed and he dropped it.

Brenda tried to cover for him, saying that it had been her fault, but everyone knew that Eric had dropped it. Jacob tried to pretend it didn’t matter but Eric was devastated. Jacob had bought the little Santa ornament for his dad with his own pocket money and painted it himself. Eric knew how precious it was.

Brenda took the ornament to the shop to get some glue to fix it, with Eric following. Jacob looked worried, realising that he’d just seen signs that his granddad’s health is deteriorating.

Eric described what had happened to Brenda and they told Jacob, who said it was important they were honest – at which point Eric also admitted he hadn’t gone to the support group.

‘I just sat in the car and cried,’ he said. ‘I’m not ready. I’m not ready for this. Please don’t be cross with me.’

As Brenda took Eric into her arms for a reassuring hug she looked across at Jacob and they both looked heartbroken and scared about what the future might hold for Eric.