Emmerdale stars reveal Dawn and Billy's baby joy and Clemmie runaway drama

Dawn and Billy Fletcher’s joy is about to turn to horror in upcoming Emmerdale scenes, when an emergency leads to their adopted daughter going missing.

Billy was overjoyed when an excited Dawn announced that she is expecting a baby. Speaking at a recent press event, stars Olivia Bromley and Jay Kontzle talk us through how their characters are feeling at their first scan.

“I think Dawn and Billy are in a really good place at the moment,” says Bromley. “They're pretty solid. They've been married for a while now; they're just in a really happy place. They're just really in love. The scan, they're just both quite overwhelmed by it I think.”

Kontzle adds: “Yeah, I think at the same time as well it's about being grateful. A lot of people find it difficult to have children and obviously, to have that opportunity to have kids is a blessing. And I think that resonates with the two characters that they recognise that, definitely.”

By the laws of soap, it’s at this point that drama takes over from delight; after Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) accidentally tells the couple’s children, Lucas (Noah Ryan Aspinall) and Clemmie (Mabel Addison) about Dawn’s pregnancy.

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Clemmie is a troubled child, and hearing about the baby leaves her convinced that she will no longer be wanted. “The fact that she could potentially lose another mum, that's how she responds to it,” explains Kontzle.

“It's the shock of like, 'Oh you're having a baby. Well, maybe I'm going to be ushered out here and I'm gonna lose another mother.' So it's a huge shock to her and it's an impulsive reaction as well. We end up finding ourselves reactive from Clemmie.”

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Clemmie’s distress leads her to push a stool into Dawn’s stomach, and Dawn collapses. Thankfully, a trip to the hospital confirms that the baby is unharmed; but then a guilt-ridden Clemmie runs away.

“They’re broken by it,” says Kontzle. “It’s just hit home, that self-guilt: ‘It’s our fault she’s gone and we need to get her back’. In any situation in real life you’re going to be all over the place, the anxiety is going to be through the roof, the repercussions, how will she respond when you get her back, will she ever come back?”

Given Dawn’s history with social services as a recovering drug addict, that’s an added worry for her, says Bromley. “It’s her biggest fear because she’s had a child taken away at a young age; her biggest fear is it happening again and she can’t quite shake that at all. She’s constantly triggered by thinking it’s going to happen again," she warns.

“As soon as Clemmie is potentially missing, Dawn just loses it again and it’s just her pattern of not being able to handle her emotions but it’s kind of understandable because her child is missing for quite a significant amount of time.”

While we’ll have to wait and see if the Fletchers will be reunited with Clemmie, Bromley notes just how far Dawn has come over the last few years. “The growth has been interesting because she’s constantly had to try to pull herself back from the brink in various ways, there’s always temptations for her. She’s focused on being a good mother and she is a good mother. She’s very anxious and worried about the kids.

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“She’s got stability, she’s got a job, she’s got a very solid relationship and I think she’s really worked on herself. The only thing she needs now is to have a better ‘Kim Tate wardrobe’ because she really needs to start looking like she belongs in Home Farm, I’m fed up!” she jokes.

Expanding on the couple living at Home Farm, Kontzle laughs: “It’s like a hotel. I don’t even know where my bedroom is, I’ve never even seen it, I haven’t got a clue.”

Watch the latest Emmerdale spoilers