In amongst all of the doom and gloom swamping Emmerdale village of late there is the tiniest golden glimmer of hope that we’re grabbing onto with both hands before it flitters away faster than Kim’s nice side.

Part of the doom and gloom has been the loss of Ethan Anderson (Emile John) who died tragically following a nasty hit and run perpetrated by Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly), although he actually died of a brain aneurysm on the day he was due in court for leaving Nicky Milligan (Lewis Cope) to die.

Charles (Kevin Mathurin), Ethan’s dad, has borne the brunt of that gloom as he has struggled to navigate life while carrying the loss of his child.

A loss made more poignant by the fact that Ethan died after Charles betrayed him to the police.

Charles has been unable to process his emotions and instead has directed them at his partner Manpreet (Rebecca Sarker). When it all became too much, Charles kicked her out of the house citing both the fact he was focused on grieving, and the fact she’d lost his trust when she started having feelings for Billy.

In a surprise turn of events, Claudette (Flo Wilson) tried to convince Charles to reconsider ending things with Manpreet, but even she couldn’t get through.

And so, Manpreet trudged over to the B&B with her things and asked Bob (Tony Audenshaw) to book in for an extended stay. Charles made it very clear that their relationship was as dead as his son.

But now that there’s been water under the bridge, Manpreet decides it’s time to see if he’ll reconsider.

In a now rare moment alone, Manpreet steals the opportunity to confess that she misses him. This stirs something in Charles.

While he’s been devoid of positive emotions of late, he’s not totally dead inside and it looks like not all hope is lost. Could he be out of his grief spiral and ready to take Manpreet back?