Emmerdale's Joe Tate saved by unlikely villager amid blackmail horror plot

In upcoming Emmerdale scenes, Joe Tate (played by Ned Porteous) is fearful as the harassment campaign against him results in a letter with a blackmail demand for £100,000 being placed in the kitchen at Home Farm.

The character is unsure of whom he can trust, so he shows the demand to Sam Dingle (James Hooton), but he's not the wiser as to who could have left the sinister envelope there.

Before long, Joe suspects his henchman Shaun (James Boyland) could be responsible and fires him on the spot for disloyalty. However, Shaun turns on Joe threateningly in response to the sacking. Seconds later, gun-toting Sam appears in the nick of time.

Later, after talking things through with Sam, Joe decides to get away from the Yorkshire Dales and tells Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley) he's got a short-notice departure for a business trip.

However, in a horrifying twist, Shaun knocks him out cold with a shovel before he has the chance to get away.

A mixture of woozy and disoriented, Joe finally comes around in a makeshift hospital room to a menacing Doctor Crowley (James Hillier).

Will the character come to regret using Doctor Crowley for his kidney transplant? What does he want from Joe?

"I feel like I've got the all clear, everything's going to be okay," he told us. "I've made my final threats and everything's all done. But then he takes a shovel to the head.

"He wakes up in a rather suspicious location, very confused, very scared, not sure where he is. A very powerless situation for Joe to be in, which he is not a fan of."

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.