Emmerdale fans have showered actor Joe Gill with praise for his emotional performance as his character Finn Barton began to discover the truth behind his father’s death.

Tuesday night’s episode saw his mother Emma (Gillian Kearney) begin to open up about what really happened on the day James Barton (Bill Ward) died in hospital after she pushed him from a bridge during a dramatic storyline last October.

The memories brought both characters to tears in an emotional argument that saw Emma twist the truth further as her son probed her with furious questions and threatened to expose her.

One viewer commented on Twitter: “@JoeyGillX is playing a blinder tonight! Brilliant performance!” and another added: “Poor Finn, but great acting”.

Others described “amazing” and “brill” acting from both stars.

The story comes almost a year after the horrific road accident that landed a number of characters fighting for their lives in hospital.

The ITV soap’s producer, Iain MacLeod, said plans are already under way for an equally dramatic storyline this autumn, but involving less extreme stunts.

Speaking at a press conference, he said: “It builds on and stems from the event of last year’s big autumn set piece and there will be similar stylistic quirks, but there will be surprises galore again.

“There is an action component to it but last year’s spectacular was so massively action-packed that, while we did toy with the idea of trying to top that, I don’t know how you achieve that without looking a bit ridiculous.

“So we’ve gone down a slightly different route that is equally dramatic but more intense and more intimate, focusing on a smaller group of people, rather than just crashing as many vehicles as we can get our hands on.”