Next week on Emmerdale – Dawn gives birth as Kim struggles

Next week on Emmerdale, it’s a dramatic week at Home Farm, as Kim reveals her dark secret to husband Will, as her stepdaughter Dawn goes into labour.

Kim’s (Claire King) involvement in the death of Craig Reed (Ben Addis)—leaving him to die after her horse Ice kicked him—has been weighing heavily on Kim’s mind recently, particularly after she was forced to reveal the truth to friend Lydia (Karen Blick).

Lydia had known that there was more to the death of her rapist than what was being let on, but she was sure that husband Sam (James Hooton) was hiding something after learning that he’d beaten up Craig on the day of his demise.

Hoping to put Lydia’s mind at ease, Kim admitted that she was there when it happened, though left out the fact that Cain (Jeff Hordley) was also present.

It did little to help Lydia however. Packing her bags, Lydia announced she needed some space from the village, and set off to stay with her mum for the festive period.

Next week, Kim finally comes clean to a stunned Will (Dean Andrews) about what really happened to Craig on the Home Farm estate.

Will feels betrayed as Kim tells him her side of the story, and is left with a difficult decision when Kim urges him to keep her secret.

“This has been brewing and Will knows something’s wrong,” Olivia Bromley told EverySoap and other media at a press event last month. “Dawn (Olivia Bromley) and Billy have picked up on something not quite being right, and when Will finds out about Kim’s involvement, he’s so disappointed.”

The next morning, it’s clear that Kim isn’t dealing with things when Will finds a hungover Kim propped up against Dawn’s birthing pool. As Kim rushes out to throw up, Will is concerned about her state of mind.

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Meanwhile, Dawn is anxiously awaiting the birth of her first child with husband Billy (Jay Kontzle), and whilst Dawn is already mum to 8-year-old Lucas and their adopted daughter Clemmie, things are going to be very different this time around.

“Dawn has previously had quite a traumatic experience being pregnant,” Olivia explains. “She was addicted to heroin at the time, so doesn’t remember a lot about being a young mother, and she had her baby [Lucas] taken away from her. There was a lot of trauma around that.

“So I think this second chance at pregnancy and being a mother, she wants to do everything totally differently and is putting herself under extreme pressure to be a perfect mother. She can’t quite believe it and is very stressed about it.”

Realising that the use of pain-relief could be an issue for her give her past addiction, Dawn has decided to opt for a natural birth.

“She decides to go completely drug free, which is really daunting for her,” Olivia continues. “But she also goes down a holistic route—she wants to have a water birth and she wants it to be very perfect.”

Down at the Christmas fair, Dawn finds herself in an awkward situation when her contractions start whilst sat outside the village hall enjoying the festivities, and finds support in a very unlikely place.

“Of course, as in life, these things don’t necessarily all go to plan,” Olivia reveals. “She actually ends up going to labour at the Christmas fair, where she’s not with Billy at the time, but with Aaron (Danny Miller)! So I don’t think that is her expected labour.”

Aaron helps Dawn time her contractions as she grips onto his hand, but eventually she manages to make it back up to Home Farm to her planned birthing partner Kim, who is able to put aside her issues to assist.

“Aaron is not the major birthing partner but he does play a part,” Olivia teases. “Kim is eventually a great help, and that’s a really nice element of this because Kim and Dawn have had a really difficult past, right back to when Dawn was first dating Jamie. Kim just didn’t approve of Dawn’s past and didn’t think she was the right kind of woman to be in her son’s life.”

“Now, Kim and Dawn have an almost mother/daughter kind of relationship. It’s developed slightly from afar, but they’re getting closer and closer. Kim being asked to be Dawn’s birthing partner was a massive deal, I think, for both of them.

“So yes, Kim is involved and does help with the birth… in fact everybody’s involved! Will’s involved and Billy is there too, so it’s a big family affair this birth! It’s really lovely, a wholesome joyful Christmas experience.”

Dawn and Billy are thrilled when all goes to plan, and they finally welcome a healthy baby boy.

“Dawn is just riddled with anxiety constantly,” Olivia reveals. “But when it comes down to the birth and everything, she really takes control and she’s actually very chilled. You don’t often see water births and home births that much on screen, and there’s often like a big trauma around births in soaps. We talked about not trying to make things overly dramatic, but inherently births are quite dramatic things to film, so it was an interesting balance to find.”

The couple choose to name the baby Evan, after Billy’s late father who died when Billy was young.

“Because Billy had such a difficult relationship with [stepfather] Al, I think it’s very important to him, so it’s a nice gesture for the two of them,” Olivia tells us.

Having no children herself, Olivia reached out to friends who had recently had babies, and did some research into water births before filming the scenes.

“It was quite an interesting day of work to be honest,” she laughs. “I didn’t expect to have like a full day in a birthing pool in front of a crew, but it went well. It’s a big challenge as an actor, I think, to do these kinds of things, especially if you’ve not experienced it.”

“We had a medical advisor on set to help, and obviously a very little 12-day-old baby called Malachi,” Olivia explains. “I was terribly nervous too, to hold someone else’s newborn baby, but he’s so cute. It’s a big responsibility, your little 12-day-old baby to come onto the Emmerdale set, but the parents were really chilled and were thrilled to see their little newborn on-screen.”

“It was a really good day of work actually and I really enjoyed it. And Jay was really helpful because he’s had his own kids as well.”

But what now for the Fletchers following their new arrival? Clemmie initially didn’t react too well to the news of Dawn being pregnant so soon after she’d become an official member of the family.

“She didn’t like the change, but I think Dawn and Billy have dealt with it really well and they’ve worked really hard to make the family unit feel secure for Clemmie,” Olivia states. “They’ve all had a lot of difficulties in the past, they focus on it so much all the time, and I think this family unit is their safety net.”

“Clemmie comes round to it and I think the kids are very excited. At this stage, in the scripts, we’re seeing this family at their best, and again that’s not something you see that much in soap as there’s usually a tragedy on the way!”

So can Olivia tease if any such tragedy is set to befall Home Farm in the new year?

“Actually…no!” she laughs. “There’s definitely some big things coming up, but I’m in the dark as much as you guys because we’ve had some big changes. All I know is that there’s going to be a big drama for Billy and Dawn around spring time, but I honestly don’t know myself yet!”

“As an actor, I love playing Dawn when she’s really grumpy and angry—the more rough and ready Dawn—I like the drama,” Olivia admits. “But for the character, I think the feeling for the moment is that we need to see some stability. I get quite a lot of messages from people who say it’s really good to see someone who’s got clean and is on a positive journey. So I think it’s important to have a period of happiness and joy for these characters… but it’s not going to last long, I don’t think!“