Emmerdale star Liam Fox, who plays Dan Spencer is convinced that Dan’s torment after punching daughter Amelia’s stalker Lloyd, will save lives in the real world!
It’s a grim tale. Teenage mum Amelia had taken to social media to share make-up videos and make some extra money to help with the costs of raising baby Esther.
But she soon attracted the attention of creepy Lloyd, just as Dan had feared would happen.
With tempers fraying, Dan tried to warn Lloyd off, but he ignored him and instead came to the village to see frightened Amelia.
When Dan clocked Lloyd in Emmerdale, he threw a punch. Lloyd collapsed. He went into a coma and has since been fighting for his life in hospital.
Now Dan’s facing prison and he and Amelia are about to make a very drastic decision.
Running away?
We sat down with Liam, and Daisy Campbell, who plays Amelia, to chat about what the dad and daughter duo are planning.
So how is Dan feeling, now he knows Lloyd has died?
“His life is just constant worry,” Liam admits. “There’s not many smiles in this story. He’s not the man he used to be.”
Dan’s sure he’s going to prison.
“There’s no way out of this,” says Liam. “He can’t stand the thought of being without his daughter and his granddaughter.”
Amelia’s guilt
It’s Amelia who comes up with a plan. She can’t cope with the idea of Dan going to prison so she tells him she wants them to go on the run.
“Amelia feels guilty,” explains Daisy. “With her social media, she finally found something she enjoyed, she could help out with the bills, then obviously something so innocent turned into something so dangerous.”
So with that responsibility weighing heavily on the teen mum’s shoulders, she tries to talk Dan into going along with her plan to run away from Emmerdale.
“She doesn’t want to be away from her dad, because he’s all she’s got,” Daisy tells us. “Her dad is her support system. I think that’s why they’ve only got that option.”
Dan’s not convinced says Emmerdale star Liam Fox
Dan, though, takes a bit of encouragement at first. He’s not keen when Amelia first suggests it, and instead focuses on preparing for life behind bars. Amelia insists they can go to Ireland and stay as a family, but Dan won’t budge.
Until, stressed Amelia almost accidentally hurts little Esther. Realising how much Amelia is struggling, Dan agrees to leg it!
“He knows it’s not a real answer,” Liam says. “They’re going to get caught eventually. It’s fantasy. It’s not real. He knows deep down you’ve just got to face up to it, really.”
Dan turns to friend and colleague Cain for help.
“Cain’s great actually,” Liam tells us. “There’s some lovely stuff with Cain and Dan, and in this storyline he’s a real help for Dan. Cain knows Dan will struggle to cope with prison and he wants to help him out. He does his best to set him up with a car and a contact in Ireland.”
Sad goodbyes
Meanwhile, Amelia is preparing to leave her life in Emmerdale forever – but she’s not saying goodbye to anyone!
“She doesn’t tell anyone about it,” Daisy reveals. “She doesn’t have the courage to tell Noah because she doesn’t want to hurt him. Amelia doesn’t want to get him involved. He can tell when she’s hiding something. She’s just so sad. She doesn’t want to lose her dad or anyone else. But Noah can see how scared she is and how frightened she is.”
But do the pair really think they can run away? Daisy isn’t sure. “I do think in the back of Amelia’s mind, she’s thinking is this really going to work?” she admits.
Dan is changed forever
And how is Dan feeling as their plan gets put into place? Is he a different man than the one who arrived in Emmerdale 12 years ago?
“Oh it’s 100 per cent changed Dan as a person,” Liam says. “It’ll take a long time for Dan to get back to the person he was. Something like this will make you look at life in a different way. And rightly so.
In fact, Liam himself thinks Dan should take the punishment for what he has done, and live with the consequences of this situation – what’s known as a ‘one-punch death’.
“Whatever happens, Dan can’t be the same again,” he says thoughtfully. “This is where my research comes in. I watched a bit about this lad, a guy from Derbyshire, he did a ‘one-punch’ thing and he’d been out of prison for four years, and he was talking about it, and all these years later he was still affected by what he’d done and the pain he’d caused the family. If you’re taking a life, it’s always going to be there.”
In fact, Liam hopes the storyline will have a big impact.
“I’m pretty sure it’ll stop one person in one place, punching somebody,” he says. “If someone in a pub or wherever gets wound up, who’s about to hit somebody will think of this story, and not do it. It will stop a one-punch death, I’m convinced of it.”
So could this be the last we see of Dan and Amelia?
“Who knows,” teases Liam. “Maybe for a while.”
Read more: Complete Emmerdale cast list 2023 – meet them all here!
Emmerdale usually airs on weekdays at 7:30pm, with an hour long episode on Thursdays.
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