We talk of the soaps as the big 3, but in reality Corrie and Enders play groom and bride to Emmerdale’s chief bridesmaid. In my view though Emmerdale at its best is head and shoulders above the other 2, delivering rounded characters, engaging storylines, believable villains and great performances across the multi aged cast.

The viewer enjoys watching the dramas unfold and is able to overlook that this tiny village really does seem to suffer more than its fair share of spectacular crashes involving cars, planes, helicopters and the occasional minibus.

It was with sadness then that on Wednesday that I decided my favourite soap had lost its way and could not even catch the bouquet let alone be ready to shine as a bride. The reasons for this were twofold; firstly, the attempted comedy in a broad brush approach, instead of cleverly mixing humour and drama together. Some things are just not funny and the attempted dognapping incensed me as it is a horrible crime and should not have been used to deliver the not oh so funny sight of Charity and Ross standing at the top of the slide to avoid a Rottweiler. There was not enough light and shade here to even justify it as “crime does not pay” story – it was just horribly awkward and a clumsy attempt at humour.

The other reason for my woe was the Charity factor. In common with Corrie’s toxic Tracey the character of Charity speaks as though everything is so important and dramatic, she spits out insults as often as she breathes, frequently plots get rich quick or revenge schemes, is rarely shown caring for her children and is not a very nice character. She can only be taken by me in small doses and so making her centre stage particularly when it is part of the revolving door romance with Cain just makes me shout “enough!”.

So on Wednesday seeing a Charity/Cain reunion made me sigh and expect that Thursday’s episodes would not be that good, probably consisting of dramatic sneering, smug triumphant looks followed by lines usually starting with an angry “Cain!” … Oh how wrong can you be. It is almost as if the producers lulled viewers into thinking that Emmerdale was on a rinse/repeat cycle of humour and couples who should not be together. What actually happened on Thursday is that we got 2 episodes full of the most moving, engaging and sensitively directed scenes.

The lack of pre-show spoilers – still photographs or details of the story etc., undoubtedly added to the impact. The only hint that Holly’s bedroom was to about to be part of a storyline was when the room made an unexpected introduction this week (same thing happened in Corrie when Hayley and Roy’s previously unseen bedroom made an appearance and we all though “uh oh, we are going to see more of this”). Natalie Robb’s performance was outstanding as Holly’s heart broken and disbelieving mum. Added into this emotional mix was the effective way the news wove its way through the village and characters who had previously been gossiping were shown to be affected by the news; an effective mix of humour and drama.

I could therefore forgive the previous night’s episode, but please no more dognapping humour or “Cain, Cain!” lines