We were getting worried about Brenda Walker (Lesley Dunlop)’s absence from Emmerdale. After all, it’s been a couple of months since she was last spotted, and during that time some pretty massive things have happened in the village.

Not least of these, of course, is the limo crash which claimed the lives of Amy Barton (Natalie Ann Jamieson), Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi) and Suzy Merton (Martelle Edinborough).

These three deaths one way or another affected almost everyone in the village, but there was a notable absence at the funerals, with Brenda not putting in an appearance to support her ex, Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell), and his grandson Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) over the loss of Jacob’s mum Leyla.

In fact we haven’t seen Brenda at all since January 17, when she fended off an awkward pass that another of her exes, Bob Hope (Tony Audenshaw), made at her.

It was only a minor incident which the pair agreed to forget about, but Brenda hasn’t been seen on screen since.

Luckily nothing sinister has happened to her, and in fact we can look forward to seeing her again in a forthcoming episode – and it seems she’s had a bit of luck. Nicola (Nicola Wheeler) spots that Brenda has won a competition in a magazine, but is a bit confused when Brenda doesn’t seem at all excited or even interested.

In fact she says she doesn’t want the prize and is going to turn it down.

In November it was reported that Lesley Dunlop was going to be leaving the show after 16 years of playing Brenda. She joined the show in 2008 and has been involved in a lot of drama over that time.

Most recently she was left devastated after her fiancé Eric Pollard confessed that he’d lost her life savings after investing the money in a crypto currency scam.

One minute Brenda had been excitedly planning her wedding, then the next she realised she could no longer even afford her wedding dress. It was the last straw for the woman who’d stood by Eric through his Parkinson’s diagnosis even though he tried his best to push her away. This time she called a halt on their relationship.

In real life Lesley and Chris have been married since 2016, having met on the show. ‘Everyone thinks it’s the younger members of the cast who have all the fun but we more mature ones do, too,’ Chris Chittell has previously said.

‘I can’t even remember if I asked her for a date or she asked me but she is wonderful and we’re very happy.’