‘Emmerdale’: Rosie Bentham reveals Gabby’s ‘panic’ over Jamie Tate

Emmerdale star Rosie Bentham says her character Gabby Thomas is 'already panicking' over the possibility of Jamie Tate (Alexander Lincoln) returning to the village.

Gabby and friend Dawn Fletcher (Olivia Bromley) recently discovered that Jamie — the father of Gabby's baby son Thomas — is alive and well after he faked his death last year.

But she has chosen to keep this information from Jamie’s mum Kim Tate (Claire King).

Read more: Next week on Emmerdale

Gabby’s motive for this decision was to avoid disrupting her own settled life at Home Farm. But as Emmerdale gears up for a dramatic week featuring some trademark flash-forwards, the story is about to take some new twists and turns.

Chatting at a recent press conference, Bentham reveals that Gabby will suspect Jamie has returned to snatch Thomas when she sees a hooded figure in the nearby woods.

“She’s already panicking,” the actor tells us.

“[Gabby] genuinely thinks this is Jamie; and it could be Jamie and [is he going to] lash out at her? Which he could, because she's got everything he wants, really.”

Read more: Emmerdale spoilers: Boss teases 'terrifying' week where storylines collide

“There's a lot of unanswered drama and questions between the two of them,” she adds. “What's going to happen if he does come up to her, what’s she going to have to do?”

“So she spots someone and her first reaction is just literally run as fast as she could out of those woods. She comes into Home Farm, locks all the doors and she's like ‘right, what do I do now?’”

We can’t give away how the week will end for Gabby. But someone does get their hands on the shotgun from Home Farm.

Of course, Bentham can’t provide any hints as to this person’s identity. But she does point out that if Jamie does come home, chaos will naturally ensue.

“Jamie coming back would kick off a lot of drama. There could be a custody battle for Thomas, and I think if he comes back he’ll want one thing only, and that's Home Farm.

"Is Kim in danger? He's obviously poisoned Kim before.”

Read more: Emmerdale: Gabby receives a shock

Although the uncertainty of the situation is currently causing Gabby a huge amount of stress, the star thinks she could come out fighting.

“I think this could actually bring back Gabby's nasty side, because it's kind of a fight or flight move where she's just like, ‘I'm protecting me, my son, my status here, and I’m not just going to back down if he comes back.’"

Asked about her thoughts on filming the huge week ahead, Bentham is full of enthusiasm, and offers a final teaser as to what fans can expect. “I was really excited about this week; it's something so different to stuff I've done before,” she says.

“I’m getting a lot of scenes on my own, they're increasing the fear and paranoia; and I think it's going to really have the audience going, that something's definitely going to happen. There's a lot of stuff that I've never done before, and it was really, really exciting to shoot.”

Emmerdale will air its big Flashforward week starting Monday 9 May, 2022.

Watch this week's Emmerdale spoilers