Emmerdale's executive producer Iain MacLeod has teased that the wrong character could be imprisoned for Emma Barton's shocking death earlier this month.

Gillian Kearney

Gillian Kearney

Fans are desperate to find out who pushed the vindictive nurse (Gillian Kearney) over the cliff after police recently established her death as murder rather than suicide, but it looks like detectives could "bark up the wrong tree" - leading to someone being wrongly accused - before they find out the truth because so many of the villagers had motives.

Asked if the wrong person could go to prison for the crime, Iain said: "It's a possibility. Everyone has such strong motives and as the story unfolds, there are many ambiguities surrounding who's doing what and when they were doing it that it's perfectly possible that the police might bark up a few wrong trees before they arrive at the correct one..."

As the list of suspects with motives continues to grow over the next coming weeks, Iain has hinted that viewers will be left baffled as one scene appears to point the finger at Moira Barton (Natalie J. Robb) after Emma tried to kill her and then stole her baby, while another will frame Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) as he was keen to protect his ex.

Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) could also find herself in the cop shop when police learn that she questioned Emma when she discovered she'd been manipulating her ex-husband Ashley Thomas (John Middleton) prior to his death from dementia last year.

Iain explained: "Emma stole Moira's baby which gives Moira a massive motive. As for Cain -he's never actually killed anyone and if he was going to it would definitely be in protection of Moira. Laurel pursued Emma earlier in the year when she discovered her manipulation of Ashley and then dropped it, but that changed when Emma clashed with Gabby and revisited her campaign of terror against Laurel's children. So I think at times various people will be suspected by the police, and same goes for the other characters. In a court of opinion, I think the jury would be hung."

And, although many of the other rival soaps have attempted a whodunit plot in previous years, Iain believes his will have a different vibe to it.

He told the Radiotimes.com: "I know whodunits have been done in soaps a lot but I think this one has a slightly different flavour in terms of how the reveal plays out and the way the episode is packaged.

"It also felt like a poetic end to Emma to make her exit a death and have the parallels with James's final scene, falling from a great height. I love a good whodunit, I'm a big fan of crime fiction generally. Some of the most high profile stories in soap have been whodunits so why not do one? It's been a while in since 'Emmerdale' did it."

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