The couple’s dark scenes have focused on physical abuse and coercive control. Emmerdale has also been raising awareness of how technology can be used by domestic abusers as they obsessively monitor their partners.

“We’ve known Belle for years – she’s someone that we’ve grown up with. We know her so well and she’s a confident young woman. Belle is part of the Dingles and she has those family members and friends around her. It was important that we chose someone who wasn’t isolated.

“Belle is the girl next door – she’s someone who can reach out for help, as she has got people around her. It was really important for us to show that domestic abuse is not discriminatory in that way.”

You’ve spoken about telling this story over a realistic timeframe. Can you give us any insight into how long it goes on for?

“We’ve said right from the beginning that we wanted to tell this story as truthfully and authentically as we can. For people who are subjected to domestic abuse, it’s not something that’s over in a couple of weeks.

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“It’s something that goes on for a long period of time and we wanted to be truthful to that. I think you can expect this storyline to run until the end of this year.”

We’ve seen characters like Cain, Vinny and Wendy start to grow unsettled by Tom’s behaviour. Will some of these villagers start to figure out what’s going on?

“That’s a tricky one. We’ll see people start to look a bit more quizzically at Tom and Belle, wonder what’s going on and question certain things that they’re seeing.

“But from the research that we’ve done, and what the charities have said to us, quite often people don’t really pick up on these things. It’s also very difficult as an outsider looking in, to broach that and ask those sorts of questions.

“So whilst we may see people picking up on it, I’m not sure we’re going to see anybody put the full picture together.”