Emmerdale: Nicola has a big confession for Jimmy, says actress Nicola Wheeler

"Nicola has a big confession for Jimmy and he's not going to be happy about it," says actress Nicola Wheeler, who is back on the ITV soap following maternity leave. "She has her tail between her legs, but because of what she comes home to, her problems get pushed to one side. What Jimmy has done soon becomes the bigger issue."

Emmerdale fans know that, thanks to Jimmy's financial problems, he's lost both the family home and all their possessions. But a spot of subterfuge has left Nicola none the wiser about what exactly has been going on.

"She has no idea," continues Wheeler. "Jimmy has even gone to the extent of taking the curtains from Mill Cottage and hanging them at Victoria Cottage, just to make sure that Nicola hasn't noticed when they've Skyped each other. Her first notion that something is going on is when she rocks up and finds scaffolding all around the house. She goes nuclear. She's furious. It's like going away on a long holiday and returning to find that your home has been sold from underneath you."

And yet despite the property now belonging to Rakesh and Priya, an angry Nicola has no intention of giving it up easily: "Nicola decides that she's going to spend time in her own bed. It’s what she’s been looking forward to. But her only means of getting in is to cause some damage!"

Viewers will see Nicola scaling the scaffolding at Mill Cottage before chucking Priya's shoes at a horrified Jimmy from the upstairs window. All of which does kind of suggest that Jimmy won't be sharing that marital bed any time soon.

"No. Absolutely not! Nicola is calling the shots and saying that she wants a divorce. To add insult to injury, not only have they lost their home, but all their belongings too. Nicola has earned a lot of money while she's been away, but she's come back with nothing. So that's a reason why she's even more infuriated.

"Jimmy thinks that her money will help them out but she knows she doesn’t have any."

Of course, Jimmy does have a talent for winning Nicola round thanks to a history of role play (that Top Gun moment springs to mind), so will he be getting up to his old tricks to get back in her good books?

Teases Wheeler: "Well, it'll be up to the audience to tune in to see which role play they're doing on this particular evening. It involves a very large fruit!" And is a reconciliation on the cards? "With Jimmy and Nicola, even when they’re screaming at each other, they love each other deep down. I think they will come through it. But there will have to be confessions on both sides before things are mended."

As for how the actress is faring back on set following the birth of her son earlier this year, it appears to be business as usual, even if getting to grips with scripts isn't now as easy as it once was:

"Yes, I have fallen out of the habit of learning the lines. I've got massive baby brain, so I'm hoping that all this will sharpen me up.

"It's hard work mixing the two things, but it's good fun too. My first scene was Nicola insulting people, so it's definitely straight back to being horrible!" Run for cover Jimmy - you have been warned!

You can watch a 60-second rundown of next week's episodes of Emmerdale below.

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