Emmerdale star Dominic Brunt has praised the soap's writers for their 'fantastic' handling of Aaron Livesy's current gay storyline.

Aaron - played by 19-year-old Danny Miller - has been struggling to come to terms with his sexuality for months, but will finally reveal the truth to Brunt's character Paddy Kirk in scenes which air tomorrow.

Discussing the emotional plotline, Brunt told Holy Soap: "The gay thing has been tackled by soaps forever, but it's differently done because he didn't arrive gay. He's almost a homophobic homosexual because he doesn't like what he is at all.

"His peer group don't like gay lads. He even punched a gay lad in the past to get in with his mates. It's just really interesting because he's really fighting it."

He added: "It's done more realistically than I've seen in a soap. There have been gay storylines in here before but [in this one] there are no clichés whatsoever. It's just fantastically done."

Brunt also said that he expects the story to have a positive impact, explaining: "I think there'll be people out there that don't know what they are, or they've been hiding it, and I think this will help."