David has been left devastated (Picture: ITV)

David Metcalfe (Matthew Wolfenden) was in a bad mood at the start of Tuesday (November 28)’s Emmerdale and Pollard (Chris Chittell) and Jacob (Joe-Warren Plant) thought they knew why.

It was post-birthday blues, obviously. After the excitement of the previous day’s celebrations, and the reminder that time was marching on, anyone would be a bit fed up.

Of course viewers know that David had a very specific reason for being moody. On his birthday, of all days, he’d discovered that his son Jacob was having a relationship with Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) – David’s ex and the woman he’d hoped to reconcile with.

Oblivious to this, Jacob excused himself from helping his dad and his granddad with the stock-take because, he said, he had to go and babysit Victoria’s son Harry.

A suspicious David followed him and saw Victoria greeting him at the door in a way that confirmed to him what he’d seen the day before.

This set the stage for a massive confrontation between father and son when Jacob returned to the shop later. David was absolutely raging and soon Jacob was in tears as he was overwhelmed with guilt for the pain he’d put his dad through.

Heartbreakingly, David said he felt like he’d been stabbed in the back – ‘And the person holding the knife is the person I love more than anyone else in the world.’

While this was going on, Pollard was telling Brenda (Lesley Dunlop) what fun he’d had with Jacob and David in the shop earlier as they’d laughed and bantered while stocktaking. He obviously hadn’t noticed David’s various barbed comments, but still. He told Brenda that all he wanted were a few more times like that with his family, but he realised that it was soon time to tell David about his Parkinson’s diagnosis.

David’s time in the village is coming to an end (Picture: ITV)

When he got back to the shop, David and Jacob were still in the middle of their confrontation and Pollard immediately assumed that David had somehow found out about the Parkinson’s and was furious with Jacob for not telling him.

Ignoring Jacob’s warning glances, Pollard stumbled into the conversation and said he was sorry for not telling David about his diagnosis sooner.

David was floored. On top of the shock of Jacob and Victoria, here was another huge secret that his family had been keeping from him. He said he should have been the first person Pollard came to with the news, not the last to find out.

Eric decided to tell David his health secret (Picture: ITV)

‘It’s pretty obvious how little my family thinks of me,’ David said. He went outside and collapsed in sobs, his whole world in pieces.

These sad revelations come ahead of David’s departure from the village, as Matthew Wolfenden has already finished filming and is appearing in a new role in the stage musical Elf.

Speaking on Loose Women, Matthew described how hard it was to say goodbye to his on-screen son.

‘It was so emotional to say goodbye, particularly to Joe-Warren [Plant] who plays Jacob, he’s grown up with me,’ he said.

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Matthew also told Metro.co.uk that the door would be left open for David to perhaps return to the Dales one day.

‘What I can say is I’m not dying, which is a good thing! I don’t die, so maybe David will come back in a few years.’

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Does he have any reason to stay in the village now?