Emmerdale producer Sophie Roper has addressed whether it was always the plan to kill off Dr Todd, stating their original thoughts, as she also revealed why they chose Sarah as the killer.
In a chat with press including The Mirror, Sophie was asked whether it had always been the plan for Todd to die. Dr Todd had initially joined as Jacob Gallagher's boss, with Todd bullying medical student Jacob for weeks. Then, she switched targets and began blackmailing Charity Dingle over her baby lie. This escalated when Todd sexually assaulted Charity, before fleeing, having claimed Charity was lying.
Sarah's accidental killing
Just recently we saw Sarah Sugden, Charity's granddaughter, accidentally kill Todd during a showdown. Charity has taken the blame and now faces prison for the crime, but with so many fans wondering why they killed Todd off instead of getting Charity legal justice, Sophie has explained the decision.
Not only that, but she answered whether it had always been the plan to kill off Dr Todd, and how they came to that choice. According to Sophie, it is something that developed as time went on but she didn't suggest it was an alteration, as if they had always wanted this to be the ending.
Justice for survivors
Sophie said: "I think any storyline like this, storylines evolve all the time as we're kind of going through that process. And when we embark on anything like this, which is such a difficult subject matter to go through, we were really keen to kind of dramatise the pursuit of justice."
"We were very keen to see that she went to the police, that she absolutely reported what had happened, and that we saw that she was believed, and that a police investigation took place as a result of that. We know that, unfortunately, for so many survivors, that is something that sometimes, they don't feel that they can report this kind of assault."
"It can be really difficult to prove and really difficult to prosecute, and we wanted to be truthful to that. It isn't everybody's experience, but unfortunately, for a lot of people, justice from a criminal standpoint doesn't happen."
Why Sarah was chosen
On the decision to have Todd killed just as Charity stood up for herself, Sophie went on: "It's not something that's premeditated, it's not something that they've gone into, wanting to cause or inflict that end point, but it will formulate a huge story off the back of that, and we will absolutely see the consequences of it from a legal standpoint."
So while Sophie didn't outright state yes or no in terms of if it was the original plan, she appeared to suggest it's what they wanted for the character, given the chances of Todd being prosecuted were minimal, with the police investigation closed due to insufficient evidence. Sophie also confirmed whether anyone else could have been the killer.
Sophie said: "It just felt right to be Sarah, and we didn't want Charity to enact that kind of violence against Doctor Todd. We bring her close to that point where she could take out her anger, but it's incredibly powerful actually when she chooses not to, because she does not want to become that monster."
"For Sarah, because of who she is as a character, because of the moral compass that she has, she embodies that ordinary, kind of girl-next-door person that's just going about their life, and then one moment in one day completely changes that."
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
