Sam and Lydia Dingle (James Hooton and Karen Blick) are hugely troubled in upcoming Emmerdale episodes as they realise that Amelia Spencer (Daisy Campbell) is still very much under Tom King (James Chase)’s spell.
The Dingles all know that Tom’s behaviour to Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) throughout their relationship was violent, abusive and controlling.
Belle was eventually able to escape from him and turned to Charity for help. Since she told Tom their marriage is over he’s turned his attentions to Amelia – mainly as a way to get at Belle.
Despite warnings from the worried Dingles, Amelia has refused to believe them and instead has fallen prey to Tom’s flattery and lies. She firmly believes that Belle’s allegations are false and that Tom is the wronged party.
For Lydia and Sam, there’s an even greater worry. Amelia is the mother of their granddaughter, Esther, and they’re terrified by the idea that Tom will be in Esther’s life.
Amelia has been pushing away everyone who has tried to intervene in her relationship with Tom, but she relents a little bit with Sam and Lydia because of their relationship to Esther and gives Sam a photo of her daughter to pass on to Samson (Sam Hall), who is Esther’s dad and is currently in prison.
This concession leads Lydia to hope that Amelia might be about to see sense about Tom. But then a conversation with Amelia makes it clear that’s not the case. Alone with Lydia, Amelia tries to convince her that everyone has got it wrong about Tom and he’s actually a very decent person.
Lydia knows this is her chance to try to get through to Amelia and she tries her best to convince her to see what Tom is really like.
We know that Lydia can be very persuasive – she’s the one who finally talked Samson into telling the truth about what happened when he was ‘stabbed’ by Matty Barton (Ash Palmisciano) – so if anyone can do it, she can.
But Amelia is a stubborn character who has been thoroughly manipulated by Tom. Is she too far under his influence to listen to reason?
