Emmerdale‘s Graham Foster finally has someone in his corner tonight – as Dawn Fletcher encourages Joe Tate to give his father figure a chance. Graham faced a frosty reception when he made a surprise appearance at Home Farm this week, but could tensions start to ease in the weeks ahead?

Graham recently returned to the village to support his ex-partner Rhona Goskirk with the crisis surrounding her stepdaughter April Windsor. However, he’s since made it clear that he wants to stick around for someone else entirely – Joe.

Joe and Graham used to be thick as thieves at Home Farm, although there weren’t too many signs of loyalty last night when Joe reported Graham to the police for faking his own death.

In tonight’s episode, this mini-crisis for Graham is quickly resolved. He initially faces some stern questioning from DC Chen over his years of deception – and whether he returned to kill Ray Walters.

However, when Chen receives instructions from some shady higher-ups in the force, she’s told to let Graham go immediately. Looks like Graham still has plenty of useful contacts to rely on…

Back at Home Farm, Joe and Kim break the news to Dawn that Graham is still alive.

Joe reiterates that he wants no further involvement with Graham, fearful that the enigmatic hardman will only let him down again.

Dawn disagrees and offers some tough love, saying: “I’ve been where you are. I’m just saying, you’ve got an opportunity here. If my dad was back from the dead, I wouldn’t care what happened, what deception there was, I would just throw my arms around him.”

She adds: “Look, someone you cared about, that you thought was dead – never mind how or why – they’re alive. Surely that’s a good thing.”

Will Joe take Dawn’s advice? And could Dawn live to regret encouraging Joe to welcome Graham back into Home Farm?