We’re used to seeing Emmerdale’s Kim Tate (Claire King) being cool, calm and in control – so much so that she has the deserved reputation of being a bit of an ice queen.
There’s more to her than that, of course. We’ve also seen Kim letting her hair down, such as on her hen do when we were reminded of her fondness for Neil Diamond.
There’s also a very kind and generous side to Kim and this is often seen in her friendship with Lydia Dingle (Karen Blick).
There’s a big difference in their economic status – Kim is the ‘lady of the manor’ at Home Farm, the most prestigious address in the village and Lydia is her cleaner, living hand-to-mouth with Sam (James Hooton) and the rest of the family in their ramshackle abode.
But most of the time this doesn’t affect the genuine warmth that exists between the two women, who have one of the most established and genuine friendships in the show.
Kim was one of the first people that Lydia turned to after she was raped by Craig Reed (Ben Addis), with Kim realising before a lot of other people that something was seriously wrong with her friend. When Lydia needed space away from her family to process what had happened Kim invited her to stay at Home Farm.
Currently Lydia is staying with her mum, unable to remain in the village after she discovered that the people she trusted most in the world had gone against her wishes and gone after Craig.
Sam beat Craig up and left him for dead, but later Kim spotted him stumbling through one of her fields as she was out riding her horse. As Craig implored her for help and made a grab for the horse it reared up and its hoof struck Craig’s head, killing him.
Kim recently confessed to Lydia that she’d been riding the horse when the incident happened and had left Craig in the field to be found later, knowing he was already dead.
In Monday (December 18)’s episode, Kim was desperate for news of Lydia and tried to talk to Sam. She was sad to hear that Lydia wouldn’t be back for Christmas and offered to have a word with her.
‘She doesn’t want to speak to you, Kim,’ Sam told her.
Kim said she was concerned about her friend , and rejected Sam’s accusation that she was only worried about whether Lydia would tell the police about what really happened to Craig.
‘She’s my friend,’ she insisted.
Sam’s reply was devastating. ‘She doesn’t feel the same way about you,’ he told her. ‘Not any more.’
