Two more Emmerdale characters have reportedly been written out of the show and will exit this summer.

Actors Lewis Cope and Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana, who play gay couple Nicky Milligan and Suni Sharma, have supposedly already filmed their final scenes - suggesting that the characters will decide to leave the village together.

The news comes just days after another of the Dales' gay characters, lawyer Ethan Anderson (Emile John), was suddenly killed off after three-and-a-half years.

"It's not going to go unnoticed that three of the village's gay characters have been written out within a matter of weeks of each other," a source told The Sun.

"The optics aren't good especially when it's pride month. The fact is decisions are taken months in advance and there are lots of different factors that go into things like this.

"It's very unusual for three actors with the same character profile to leave at the same time."

They added: "The feeling is that the characters weren't given a fair shot. They were barely used despite having lots of initial promise.

"Soaps can be great work for actors starting out - but only if they are given storylines to work with and sometimes things just don't work out.

"They're hungry to hone their craft to show what they can do and don't want to be used as glorified set dressing."

Cope had been on the soap since December 2022, while Ramana joined only last summer.