The following article contains spoilers from the episode of Emmerdale dated February 6. It hasn’t aired on ITV1 yet, but can be viewed on ITVX.

Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) and Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) decided to rip the plaster off in today’s Emmerdale and head into the pub to confirm to even more people that Mr Foster is back from the dead.

The character made his return to soapland at the start of January during Corriedale. It was in a flashback episode later in the month that allowed us to discover Graham was in the village just before the crossover crash took place, as he had got word that April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) was caught up in Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) and Celia Daniels’ (Jaye Griffiths) drug dealing operation.

Graham told Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) that he’d deal with Ray, but couldn’t go through with killing him because Joe heard their confrontation. He then disappeared, but went back to the Dales a couple of days ago, and has been there ever since.

Now Joe has got his head around Graham faking his death, he decided to no longer hide the resident away from everyone, and this decision only happened because Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) was worried about someone having a heart attack from the shock of seeing the man again.

To say everyone in the pub was shocked to Graham is a bit of an understatement.

Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) reacted by reminding Graham (as if he needs reminding) that Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) went to prison for his murder, while Sam Dingle (James Hooton) remained convinced he was looking at Graham’s identical twin.

There was also a newbie in the Woolpack that Graham hadn’t met – Ruby Miligan (Beth Cordingly). She stood up and introduced herself alongside Caleb Miligan (William Ash), but didn’t realise they actually know each other.

Graham calmly told everyone that he’s back for good and hopes he can have a life in the village again. It won’t look exactly as it did before though, as Charity made it clear he was barred from the pub as he left with Joe.

Outside, Graham was confronted by Charity again, who believed he was back for Rhona, not Joe. She warned him about trying to reconnect with Rhona, telling Graham that Marlon’s been through a lot in the past few years, and doesn’t deserve to face anymore challenges that threaten his marriage.

Graham tried to tell Charity that he was back for Joe and no-one else, but she struggled to believe how anyone would want to spend time with Joe, the man who caused the limo crash and subsequent deaths of Suzy, Leyla and Amy last year.