Emmerdale favourite pops the question in romantic display but gets turned down

Where Emmerdale’s Home Farm was once a family home bustling with people, there’s currently only one occupant – Kim Tate (Claire King).

After suffering a riding accident that damaged her leg and claimed the life of her horse, Kim was appalled to discover that the accident came about because her trusted employees, Sam and Lydia Dingle (James Hooton and Karen Blick), had organised an illegal shoot on her land and the participants had laid snares for rabbits, one of which had trapped her horse’s leg.

Kim felt most betrayed by Lydia, the woman she regarded as her best friend. She sacked her and Sam and ordered them out of the house.

Before this, Kim had fallen out with Joe Tate (Ned Porteous), whom she accused of trying to get his hands on her empire the minute she was incapacitated. She was also angry with Joe for being the one who authorised her beloved horse being put to sleep because of his injuries – even though he was acting on the vet’s advice.
Joe made the call to put Ice the horse to sleep (Picture: ITV)
Joe and Dawn Fletcher (Olivia Bromley) have been living in a cottage since they were sent away from Home Farm, but in Monday (December 22)’s episode Joe tried to make amends with Kim after he heard that Lydia had admitted her and Sam’s part in the accident.

Kim was having none of it and sent him away again.

In the wake of this he was seriously considering his future and, in the Woolpack, suggested to Dawn that they could move away from the village and start afresh. Dawn was reluctant to do this because she said the kids were happy where they were.

Joe insisted to Dawn that he loves her, and then he had an idea and headed off, telling her to meet him at the cottage later.
Joe and Dawn got together after Dawn had an affair with Joe (Picture: ITV)
As soon as he’d gone, Charity (Emma Atkins) started to get into Dawn’s head about Joe. Charity is no fan of Joe because of the way he treated her daughter Debbie (Charley Webb), and then his plan to steal a kidney from Charity’s son Noah (Jack Downham), and you can see her point. She told Dawn that Joe would soon be gone and was probably off planning how to dump her.

Dawn got seriously worried that Charity was right, and ignored several phone calls from Joe thinking he was going to end things with her.

But a very different scenario unfolded when Dawn went outside. Joe was there in a smart suit, accompanied by a woman with a violin. As the violin played, Joe got down on one knee in front of Dawn – and, less romantically, in front of Charity, Aaron (Dany Miller) and Robert (Ryan Hawley).

As he was proposing, Charity was mouthing the words, ‘Say no!’

And Dawn said no. How much of this was Charity’s influence and how much was about her own reservations about Joe it was hard to tell. But poor Joe looked gutted. Trailed by his friend the violinist, he wandered off down the street.