When Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) staged his shock return from the dead in Emmerdale recently, one of the most surprising things he discovered about the people of

the village he’d (temporarily) left behind was how settled and happy Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) seemed to be.  Joe’s affair with Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) – who was

in an apparently happy, although strained, marriage to Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle) at the time – soon turned into something deeper.

Joe Tate’s about to get quite the shock

Over the months of their relationship, Joe has realised that he loves Dawn, and even her pushing him out of a window didn’t put him off. And Dawn has gradually learned that she can trust Joe and has been able to confide in him about some of her deepest secrets.

Dawn of course comes as a package deal along with her children, Clemmie (Mabel Addison), Lucas (Noah Ryan Aspinall) and Evan (permanently upstairs). Although Billy is still very involved in his children’s lives, Joe has found himself starting to enjoy his role of stepfather to them.

It’s probably not where Graham expected Joe to be in his life right now, but he’s been pleased to see that Joe is now a family man.

And that family looks set to get bigger in upcoming episodes, as Dawn has a bit of news for Joe – she thinks she might be pregnant.

How will Joe react to this news? Will he be overjoyed at the thought of having a child of his own with the woman he loves? Or will the famously selfish Joe revert to type and decide that he’s not ready to get elbows-deep into dirty nappies?

He’s a busy man at the moment, what with all the machinations to get his hands on Moira (Natalie J Robb)’s farm. He blackmailed Robert (Ryan Hawley) into planting incriminating evidence at Butlers, as he has a video of Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) killing her brother John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth) in the woods on the night of the Corriedale crash. With his and Kim’s empire set to grow, he has a lot on his mind.

And how will Dawn feel about having another child? She went through quite a torrid time when she was pregnant with Evan, because as a former drug addict she was terrified to accept any pain relief at all during the birth. As it turned out the birth was fairly uneventful, even though the contractions started at the Christmas Fair.

It was after the birth that things got really difficult. Poor Evan has been through a lot in his young life, though, having been diagnosed with leukaemia. Billy and Dawn’s marriage went through huge strain as they tried to support their little boy through gruelling rounds of treatment. This opened the door to Dawn’s affair with Joe.