A “dark” storyline in Emmerdale has sparked a flurry of complaints from viewers.

Last night’s episode, which was brought forward to the earlier time of 6.45pm because of Europa League football, saw Natalie Anderson’s character Alicia Metcalfe sexually assaulted by teenager Lachlan White, played by Thomas Atkinson.

An Ofcom spokesman said: “Ofcom has received 47 complaints regarding Emmerdale on ITV yesterday. We are assessing these before deciding whether to investigate or not.”

Emmerdale
Alicia (Natalie Anderson) and Lachlan (Thomas Atkinson) feature in the Emmerdale storyline (ITV)

A spokeswoman for the ITV soap said: “Lachlan is a very troubled teenager and his assault upon Alicia is the beginning of a very dark storyline for his character. We thoroughly researched this aspect of the plot and the drama was intentionally implicit rather than explicit.”

Viewers were told before the episode was broadcast that it included “distressing” scenes “that some viewers may find difficult to watch”.

Only last month, Ofcom cleared the BBC of breaching broadcasting rules with a controversial rape storyline in EastEnders which prompted a number of complaints.

EastEnders
Linda (Kellie Bright) was a rape victim in EastEnders’ controversial storyline (BBC)

More than 90 people wrote to Ofcom to voice concerns about the incident, screened in October, in which Queen Vic landlady Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) was attacked by Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo).

But Ofcom cleared the edition of the BBC One soap as a result of warnings given to viewers and its avoidance of graphic content.