Emmerdale’s Jimmy King has changed since he first appeared in the soap, with his character has evolving from a hard, cold businessman to a devoted husband.

Emmerdale viewers can get over the moment village bad boy Cain Dingle was brutally beaten up by ‘harmless’ Jimmy King.

As viewers of the ITV hit soap know, Cain is the local hardman and has tormented and beaten his way through life since entering the fictional village.

However, when it comes to fellow resident Jimmy King, he lives a more quiet life in the Yorkshire Dales and his character has taken a more comedic turn, which is completely different to when he first appeared in the soap.

When Jimmy entered the village, he was known as a cold businessman, who was involved in various business dealings, a feud with the Sugden family and even got stabbed by Daz Eden.

It was around that time that he got into a heated exchange with Cain. In an episode that originally aired in April 2009, Jimmy didn’t hold back and attacked Cain after a disagreement over money.

At the time, Cain made a dramatic return to help daughter Debbie gain custody of Sarah and it didn’t take long for things to start going wrong as Cain demanded to know what’s been happening with the Kings.

Debbie revealed that Tom got murdered on his wedding day and the business is starting to go down now that Jimmy and Carl are driving trucks for King and Sons after being bankrupt which cost them Home Farm.

Later that day, things took a turn for the worse as Cain bumped Carl and Jimmy and it didn’t take long for them to demand their money back but Cain refused.

Jimmy went on to punch Cain in the stomach and, as expected, Debbie attempted to break the fight, but Cain backed her off and continued to taunt the Kings before Carl also punched Cain.

Jimmy and Carl beat him up and Cain did not fight back, much to Debbie’s horror, however, Eli along with Marlon came to Cain’s rescue and Jimmy dragged Carl inside.

Emmerdale viewers still can’t get over the moment as they claim the new Jimmy ‘can’t fight his way out of a paper bag’.

Sharing their reaction online, one viewer commented: “I couldn’t imagine Jimmy hitting Cain in this day and age now.” Another joked: “Jimmy? He couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag.”

A Third wrote: “That scene was strange as we’ve never seen Jimmy get physical with Cain in the past. Although if I’m being truthful, I don’t rate Cain as highly as other soap hardmen. I’d still expect him to beat Jimmy in a full-blown fight.”

Meanwhile one added: “I remember Jimmy King was a completely different character during his early years. He was like a harder dodgy dealer but he changed into a lovable buffoon bumbling clown around 2009. If he was the old Jimmy King from the past he would have beat Cain Dingle compared to buffoon Jimmy King who would run away like a chicken lol.” (sic)

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.