Emmerdale fans baffled as soap misses key element for the first time in months

VIEWERS have recently been faced with distressing scenes during each trip to the Dales.

But after a string of warnings on their screens, Emmerdale viewers were delighted to see ITV hold off for the first time in months.

Life in the eponymous village has been particularly gut-wrenching for multiple residents.

After a heartbreaking cancer diagnosis, Faith Dingle decided to stop her chemotherapy, meaning her fate is sealed and she will be dying of her illness.

This was soon followed by harrowing scenes of Nicola King being brutally attacked by a group of teenage girls and suffering from a mental breakdown as a state of panic took over her day-to-day life.

Prior to these, Noah Dingle's behaviour took a troubling turn as he stalked his former flame Chloe Harris - which even led to Cain and Chas Dingle getting into a horrific car crash.

Before him, it was serial killer Meena Jutla who terrorised villagers and even caused a massive showdown in court, following her trial.

Understandably, ITV felt it was important to prepare viewers for "scenes of distress" they could find upsetting and issued a message before each episode.

The message became a regular fixture in the soap and, in time, left fans livid after each airing.

For the first time in months, however, viewers noticed the warning had vanished from screens during last night's instalment of the Yorkshire-based soap.

Delighted fans took to Twitter and commented on the absent intro.

“Emmerdale time finally no mentions of upsetting scenes!”, one of them penned.

"No distressing scenes? Well that makes a change!", another commented as a third viewer jumped in: "Do my ears deceive me or are there finally going to be no distressing scenes on Emmerdale today?"

In recent weeks, some viewers had simply decided to switch off from the long-running drama as the heavy storylines had been too hard to handle.

Actress Nicola Wheeler, aka Nicola King, had even spoken up about how "tough" her own scenes had been to film.

The soap star was recovering from a health battle as she filmed the scenes of Nicola's crash with David Metcalfe.

Recently, Emmerdale has given a spot for Sandra Flaherty (Joanne Mitchell) to wreak havoc as she reconnected with her daughter Liv (Isobel Steele) with a plan in mind.

Moira Dingle (Natalie J. Robb) also found out about Suzy Merton's (Martelle Edinborough) connection with the death of her daughter Holly.

But could the relief of viewers be short-lived?

Emmerdale airs on ITV.