Emmerdale confirms return of Kim Tate with surprising new romance

"She’s back on screen next month," she said, "We’re storylining March at the moment so she’s been back for ages!"

King, who originally played the role between 1989 and 1999 before returning to Emmerdale in 2018, had previously been unable to film after being declared a vulnerable person due to her arthritis.

And it looks like Kim will be back with a bang, with Hudson confirming that return will see her with a mystery new love interest - and a somewhat unexpected one at that.

"Kim always has her eye on her next man," she said. "And there is one lined up and I think that’s going to surprise people when they see where Kim goes next!"

All of the major soaps are back to full volume next week, with Emmerdale returning to its full complement of six episodes a week, and Hudson said she was proud of the "incredible achievement" made by each programme.

"It’s quite daunting because we all knew that the rest of the industry is watching us and not just in this country, around the world as well, to see if the quality is still the same so I’m just really proud of us all," she said.

She went on to comment that, although coronavirus would be a visible presence in the soap going forwards, she was wary about letting the pandemic dominate the storylines.

"It needs to be visible but not noticeable, it needs to have a presence and we need to acknowledge what’s going on in the world, but it shouldn’t take over the scene, it shouldn’t dominate the scene," she explained.

"I think there are times you will see our characters removing their face mask when they normally wouldn’t because I don’t think anyone wants to watch a big emotional scene with people wearing masks."

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