What a moment (Pictures: ITV)

Chas (Lucy Pargeter) was relieved when Paddy (Dominic Brunt) said he was surprising her with a trip away on Emmerdale. For one thing, it got her away from an awkward situation after Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper) discovered that her affair with Al (Michael Wildman) was still ongoing up until the day he died.

As they set off to the secret destination Paddy wouldn’t even use the sat nav – he wanted it to be a total surprise when they got there. And surprising it certainly was, as they arrived at a beautiful house in the countryside.

‘The stuff that dreams are made of,’ Paddy said to a somewhat mystified Chas. ‘Yours and Al’s.’

In an absolute twist, the house was the one Al had been arranging to buy for him, Chas and Eve (Bella James) to live in. Belle had told him everything, Paddy revealed to his shocked wife. ‘She thought I deserved better than you.’

Throughout these scenes Paddy was strangely controlled. We’d expected him to be upset and cry, perhaps beg and plead. But he was holding himself together tightly, needing to say everything that was on his mind, wanting her to know how much she’d hurt him.

Chas kept repeating her usual excuse that Al had been an escape from the realities of life, but what Paddy couldn’t forgive was how she’d pushed him away when he tried to support her when Faith (Sally Dexter) was dying. ‘Did loving him really mean you had to hate me?’ he said, heartbreakingly.

He knew that Chas had been planning to bring Eve with her when she left for her new life with Al, and Eve was uppermost in his mind when he calmly told Chas that they needed to go back to the village, where they would arrange to split with the least upset to their daughter.

Back at the Woolpack, Moira (Natalie J. Robb) was already waiting, fuming quietly after what she’d heard from Belle and there was an epic showdown when Paddy and Chas returned as Moira weighed in, with Amy (Natalie Ann Jamieson) and Chloe (Jessie Elland) soon joining the argument as Charity (Emma Atkins) tried to defend Chas.

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Paddy announced that he was packing a bag after he said goodnight to a sleeping Eve. As he left Eve’s bedroom the self control he’d managed to maintain for the whole day deserted him and he crumbled into Bear (Josua Richards)’s arms.

Poor Paddy. Is there any way he can forgive Chas after all that? Or will he accept that Belle’s right and he does deserve better than Chas?

All the hugs for Paddy, please.