Emmerdale producer reveals when Tom and Belle story will end

Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw has shared the show’s future plans for Tom and Belle King’s domestic abuse storyline.

The ITV show is currently airing the most talked-about soap plot of the year, as Tom continues to cruelly torment his wife Belle with no end in sight.

The couple’s dark scenes have focused on physical abuse and coercive control. Emmerdale has also been raising awareness of how technology can be used by domestic abusers as they obsessively monitor their partners.

Digital Spy caught up with Shaw this week for an insight into where the story goes from here.

Why was Belle chosen for this storyline?

“We’ve known Belle for years – she’s someone that we’ve grown up with. We know her so well and she’s a confident young woman. Belle is part of the Dingles and she has those family members and friends around her. It was important that we chose someone who wasn’t isolated.

“Belle is the girl next door – she’s someone who can reach out for help, as she has got people around her. It was really important for us to show that domestic abuse is not discriminatory in that way.”

You’ve spoken about telling this story over a realistic timeframe. Can you give us any insight into how long it goes on for?

“We’ve said right from the beginning that we wanted to tell this story as truthfully and authentically as we can. For people who are subjected to domestic abuse, it’s not something that’s over in a couple of weeks.

“It’s something that goes on for a long period of time and we wanted to be truthful to that. I think you can expect this storyline to run until the end of this year.”

We’ve seen characters like Cain, Vinny and Wendy start to grow unsettled by Tom’s behaviour. Will some of these villagers start to figure out what’s going on?

“That’s a tricky one. We’ll see people start to look a bit more quizzically at Tom and Belle, wonder what’s going on and question certain things that they’re seeing.

“But from the research that we’ve done, and what the charities have said to us, quite often people don’t really pick up on these things. It’s also very difficult as an outsider looking in, to broach that and ask those sorts of questions.

“So whilst we may see people picking up on it, I’m not sure we’re going to see anybody put the full picture together.”

Could Jimmy spot something suspicious in Tom’s behaviour?

“I think it’s sometimes difficult to see people close to you in a different way, so for Jimmy he’s probably unaware of it at the moment.”

Have you always known how you planned to end the story?

“I think we’ve always had a good idea in our head of exactly where we wanted it to end. Obviously we’ve found new twists and turns as we’ve gone through, but we’ve always had a pretty clear picture in our head of how it would end.”

The show received complaints recently when Tom abused Piper the dog. Did you expect that element of the story to have such an impact?

“Well we should have got an ugly dog, that’s the first thing I’m going to say! Having that cute dog, I don’t think has helped.

“Whenever you put any sort of pet in danger in Emmerdale, people go up in arms about it, so I did expect it.

“Piper will definitely have a future role in the story. It is research-led. One of the things we found is that pets can be something that abusers will use. They will use the family pet, they will use the people that you love – they’ll use them as weapons against you.

“This is all based on research – I promise you that it’s not just us being mean to the dog for the sake of it.”

Will you explore whether Tom has been like this in other relationships?

“I think it is something that will come up in the future. Do I think he’s been like that in the past? Possibly…”

How important is the tech abuse element of the storyline?

“This is one of the things that the charities said to us – it’s becoming more and more commonplace now. As technology has become more advanced, that’s being used by abusers more and more. There are cameras, or you can put keystroke technology on someone’s laptop.”

What do you hope the impact of the story will be?

“Some of the statistics that were given to us were just incredible. I think it was that 1 in 4 women are affected by domestic abuse in their lifetime. One woman is killed every three days.

“It’s just absolutely shocking and when you hear statistics like that, it just goes to show how prevalent it is.

“If you can help one woman to reach out, or someone’s next door neighbour to realise what’s going on, or someone to go and speak to that family member and say ‘I’m here for you’, or influence anyone in any way whatsoever, then we’ve done the best job that we can do.”

Have you been keeping track of the audience reaction?

“Yeah, I think the audience reaction has been phenomenal. Domestic abuse is not new to soap, as it’s a story that’s been covered before.

“But I think what we’ve done is we’ve covered it in different ways. We’re exploring the use of technology by Tom, and we’re covering how Belle’s mental health has been used against her. So it’s a slightly different way of showing abuse.

“We’ve had letters and comments. We’ve had so many women – and men – reaching out saying: ‘This is what happened to me and I felt like this as well’.

“It’s been upsetting at times, to be honest. When you read it, you realise how many people are affected by it.

“But on the other hand, you’re aware that you’re giving people a voice, and that they are able to speak out, and that’s what we want.”

Where does the story go from here?

“What we’ll see is Tom finding different ways to manipulate Belle and control Belle. We’ll see an escalation.”

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.