If there’s one thing Emmerdale’s Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) hates it’s not being in control, made a thousand times worse when he doesn’t even know who’s doing the controlling.

In recent weeks, Joe has been left perturbed after getting himself a blackmailer, who appears to have begun waging a campaign of terror against him.

First it was keying his car – which he initially blamed on Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle) but when a letter was left on his bed while he was in the bathroom, at a time Billy had an alibi, Joe started to get nervous.

The letter itself was enough to get the nerves jangling – it was a warning in the style of a ransom note to make Joe aware he was being watched.

With Billy out of the picture, Joe is back to the drawing board for suspects with an axe to grind against him.

Joe is right to be afraid, as the blackmailer is about to up the ante. He receives an envelope with a demand for stonking £100,000, laid neatly on his kitchen counter.

Speaking of usually unshakable Joe’s fears, actor Ned Porteous revealed to Metro: ‘It’s less the money, more the idea that someone had got into the house because that’s the feeling you’ve lost your safe bubble…That’s the home of the people that you really care about.’

So Joe is checking his own shadow now that he has no clue who’s out to get him, and whoever it is has access to his home. He shows Sam (James Hooton) the note but he’s just as clueless as his boss. Then Joe’s mind turns to one person he hasn’t yet suspected – his recently rehired henchman Shaun.

Speaking of hiring Shaun and regretting it, Ned said: ‘with that comes its own dangers, you know, because hired muscles have their own anger issues and stuff like that. So we’ll see.’

A hint there that Shaun is connected to all of this somehow.

Joe’s not exactly played nice with Shaun, so it would make sense, and his reaction is to sack him for disloyalty. Shaun does not take kindly to this and threatens his former employer, but Sam arrives wielding a gun just in time.

Joe needs to protect himself and makes a snap decision to do a runner. He tells Dawn (Olivia Bromley) he has a business trip and gets ready to leave – but just as he does, he’s whacked over the head with a shovel.

The nightmare is just beginning for Joe as he slowly comes round to find himself in a makeshift hospital room, with his blackmailer looming over him – Dr Crowley. This is a dire situation indeed – no one even knows where he is!

‘Joe’s entire thing is about trying to seem in control of the situation, when that’s really the furthest thing from the truth,’ Ned teased.

There are worrying times ahead for incapacitated Joe. What does the surgeon want?