'Emmerdale' boss teases Aaron's future, confirms trial

Emmerdale's series producer Stuart Blackburn has confirmed that there is a "long journey" ahead for show regular Aaron Livesy in the aftermath of his boyfriend Jackson Walsh's death.

Last week, viewers saw Jackson end his life by drinking a concoction of drugs which were given to him by Aaron (Danny Miller). Jackson had told his loved ones that he no longer wished to continue living with his spinal cord injury, which left him paralysed from the neck down.

Aaron begins to face the consequences of his actions in next week's episodes as he is charged with murder. Jackson's mother Hazel, who was also involved in the incident, is released without charge.

Discussing Aaron's future on This Morning today, Blackburn explained: "There will be a trial. It's going to be a long, long journey for Aaron. We're storylining now right up until October, November - and he's still trying to come to terms with what he's done.

"These are actions that he's taken that he's going to have a lot of remorse and regret about. And the real trial is among the village - people like Chas and Paddy who are having to step up to the mark and the after-effects of this. So there's a long way to go."

Emmerdale's assisted suicide storyline sparked a handful of complaints to the broadcasting regulator Ofcom, while spinal injuries charity Aspire branded the plot "negative, unrealistic and pretty inaccurate". Others, however, have praised the way the conclusion to Jackson's story was handled on screen.

Discussing the reaction, Blackburn commented: "All I can say from my point of view is that it's been brilliant. The one thing we knew we wanted was debate - and that's what we've got. There have been some complaints and some people aren't happy with the way we told it, and we understood that and appreciated it. But I think overall, it's gone down incredibly well and we're now sitting here having an adult debate about the issues it raised."

He continued: "I don't want to go out to offend, and we tried at every level to be as sensitive as we possibly could - and I think we achieved that."

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s12/emmerdale/news/a324800/emmerdale-boss-teases-aarons-future-confirms-trial.html

View below Stuart Blackburn discussing the story and viewers reaction on ITV's 'This Morning' show.