Emmerdale (ITV1, 7pm and 8pm)

LAST night the train crash, tonight the repercussions – and for several months to come, according to Emmerdale producer Gavin Blyth. “This is the start of the story, not the end,” he says.

In yesterday’s episode, viewers of the ITV1 soap saw Jackson trapped in a crashed car on the tracks in front of an oncoming train. It’s not giving anything away to say he doesn’t die, but the aftermath of the accident, both emotional and physical, will continue well into next year.

The storyline centres around Aaron (Danny Miller), who’s recently come out, and his on-off boyfriend Jackson (Marc Silcock). The crash followed Jackson’s declaration of love for confused Aaron.

Danny Miller, who’s just won best actor at the Inside Soap awards, is modest about last night’s Emmerdale. “I thought it was a great episode all round,” he says.

“I don’t think we should single anyone out, everyone was equally on par. It was quite emotional, but you just kind of bounce off each other.

“You think of the things that would get you emotional in real life and backtrack on the story of what Aaron’s gone through and the emotion comes with it.”

Aaron blames himself for the accident – the fact that he was unable to tell Jackson he loved him and then made the phone call that Jackson was answering when he crashed.

“It’s an extension of the Aaron and Jackson love story,” explains Blyth, who’s credited for reviving Emmerdale’s fortunes after a period in the doldrums. “It’s time for Aaron to stand up. There will be no miracle cures in Emmerdale.

“Jackson’s fighting for his life for a significant amount of time and after that the story starts. It’s a long journey of love, heartache... I don’t want to say too much of what it actually is. There’s such a journey to make and it plays out until May or June next year.”

Miller has gay friends who’ve helped him through this particular coming out storyline. It was easier for a lot of them to come out than Aaron, he says. “You asked them how they felt at the time and add a bit of your own emotion and play it out on screen.”

The train crash sequence was filmed in Nottingham over a couple of nights. In the weeks after that Marc Silcock got to lie down on the job – he was unconscious in a hospital bed.

Miller says that 99 per cent of the reaction to the Aaron storyline has been positive.

“What we were worried about was that older viewers might not accept the story for what it is or understand what we’re trying to show,” he says.

“But it’s been amazing – I’ve had people of all ages come up to me and say they’ve enjoyed the storyline, from teenagers to 60 or 70-year-olds. It’s fantastic for them to tell you what they enjoy about the storyline.

“I’ve had letters from people saying thank you, you’ve helped me come out and also letters from people asking advice.

But I can’t help them because I’m not an agony aunt.”

Jackson’s hospital stay had led to a change in his preparation. “My normal make-up call is about five minutes, and it stretched out to an hour overnight. But I was quite fortunate the first couple of weeks because I could sleep at work and get paid for it,” he says.