Emmerdale fans floored as teenage villager returns looking 'unrecognisable'

Emmerdale fans were left surprised on Thursday evening (August 29) as Arthur Thomas returned to the village.

Fans of the ITV soap will know, Arthur (Alfie Clarke) has been traveling around Australia and has missed out on his mum Laurel's (Charlotte Bellamy) dramatic seperation from Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson).

Jai and Laurel are getting divorced just months after tying the knot after she was horrified over her husband's behaviour, where he made biological father Amit (Anil Goutam) leave the village and he also made him cut other son, Suni Sharma (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana), out of any ownership of the HOP, signing over all the shares to just him.

Arthur's last appearance was in March when his friend Heath Hope (Sebastian Dowling) died in a car accident. But now he has returned to Mulberry and was immediatly left embarrassed after interupting new couple Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) and Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson).

However, there's more drama ahead when Arthur catches up with his family's goings-on, where he soon gives former stepdad Jai a piece of his mind about the impact the divorce procedure stress is having on his mum Laurel.

As Laurel caught up with her beloved son, she came over all faint as Arthur feared she was having a second heart attack.

She soon reassured him the episode was part of her recovery but the teenager quickly pinned his mum's bad health on her estranged husband in a showdown with Jai.

Despite, Arthur's dramatic return viewers of the ITV were left distracted as they claim the character looks much more grown up.

Taking to X, one viewer wrote: "Arthur is ten years older than when he left. #emmerdale." A second added: "Arthur , looks so different #Emmerdale."

A third added: "Arthur's returned from his holibobs and suddenly thinks he's a hardman Love it #Emmerdale."

"Is this a new Arthur, or is it just the fringe? #Emmerdale", asked another.

While another echoed: "Why does Arthur look different #emmerdale?"

Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX