Emmerdale star James Chase has enjoyed a well-earned trip away after chilling audiences in his role as Tom King.
The actor, who joined the ITV soap over a year ago, has taken centre stage in a terrifying storyline, with character Tom abusing and controlling wife Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) for months.
Fans have desperately hoped that Belle will get the justice she deserves and that evil Tom will pay for his crimes and they won’t have too long to find out what happens, with the storyline set to begin its final chapter imminently.
And after what has no doubt been an intense year for him, star James marked the conclusion of the storyline with a trip to Japan.
‘Already in love with Japan’, he wrote on social media alongside a series of pictures. The actor received numerous messages of support from fans – and he also got some nice comments from fellow soap stars too!
‘Enjoy brother!’, wrote Joe-Warren Plant, who portrays Jacob Gallagher on the ITV soap, while Coronation Street star Calum Lill, whose time as evil Joel came to an end on Friday, added: ‘Looks unreal. Enjoy dude, you’ve earned it.’
James responded with: ‘cheers pal yr too kind.’
It’s currently unknown as to how exactly James’ time on Emmerdale as Tom will come to an end but viewers are certainly hoping justice will be served.
Discussing a special episode, which will air next month, Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw said: ‘When we first embarked on this journey we knew we wanted to show domestic abuse, coercive control and manipulation in all its guises.
‘The privilege we have on a drama such as Emmerdale is being able to show the reality of a situation like Belle’s over a longer period of time to authentically reflect what so many people go through in real life on a daily basis.’
‘We knew from the outset that Belle would need some sort of closure on Tom and we know our Emmerdale audience always look forward to our villains getting their comeuppance,’ she said.
‘We don’t want to spoil the outcome of this story and reveal what will happen to Tom, but needless to say, Belle’s going to be in a much better place by this Christmas.’
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 or stream from 7am on ITVX.
