When Laurel Thomas took an interest in Ray while waiting tables at the Hide, we sensed that there could be trouble ahead.

And now, star Charlotte Bellamy has told Inside Soap she is preparing for dramatic scenes on the Dales. But what exactly will go down?

As well as sharing a flirty exchange with Ray this week, Laurel also fell out of favour with her best friend, Nicola, following her confession that she contacted the local school about the indecent image that has circulated of ten-year-old Clemmie Reed.

But luckily, Inside Soap can confirm that Laurel and Nicola will continue to stay in each other’s lives going forward.

“Laurel and Nicola are like sisters,” Charlotte told us. “They’re so different, but so loyal to each other. We’ve had loads of stuff recently, and we continue to, so it’s great fun with Nic [Wheeler, who plays Nicola]!”

Having first appeared on Emmerdale in 2002, Charlotte has been involved in plenty of hard-hitting storylines, most notably the tragic cot death of Laurel and Ashley’s baby, Daniel, followed by Ashley’s powerful battle with dementia.

“I’ve been very lucky with my stories,” reflects the actress. “I felt very privileged to be involved in the cot death – that was a real turning point for the character, it was brutal.

Then, Ashley’s dementia was a remarkable story that had such a massive impact on so many levels. The one-off episode is now used in the Alzheimer’s Society for family members to try and understand how dementia affects people’s brains through the eyes of somebody with it. What an achievement.”

In recent times, Laurel’s life as a single mum to Arthur and Dotty has been markedly less unfortunate – but still, brace yourselves for big drama for Laurel in the coming months.

“When you see what is going to happen, you’ll go, ‘Oh my God!'” Charlotte shares. “The scripts we’re reading at the moment, I have never read scripts like them – I just cannot put them down. It just goes mad and crazy!”