AS awkward moments go, this is one of the trickiest to negotiate. Nick Nick Tilsley is down on one knee, not a position recommended to those with deteriorating joints or concrete floors.

He’s asking his ex-wife Leanne to marry him in Coronation Street (ITV1). I love you, he says. I can’t live without you, he says. I want to marry you again, he says. He kisses her. He may be on his knees a long time because Leanne also has something to say.

And it’s not, “I’ll marry you”. Her head has been turned by a half-naked man.

That would be fitness trainer Kal. He comes to her rescue like a knight in shining armour (but without the shining armour) when her plans for a stripper for a hen night at Weatherfield’s classiest joint The Bistro fall apart. The man booked to removed his clothes for the delectation of screaming women cancels, no doubt deterred by the prospect of Emily stuffing £5 notes in his gstring as a reward for giving her an eyeful of his bits and pieces.

Kal offers to stand in for the missing stripper. Being a fit sort of bloke he looks good gyrating for the ladies. Leanne likes what she sees and even helps him straighten his dicky bow, one of the few items of clothing that he’s wearing.

How long will she keep Nick on his knees?

Will he be able to get up again? How long is a piece of string? How deep is the ocean? How do I get out of writing sentences beginning with How? Ding dong Belle – the teenager is in court accused of killing her best friend Gemma in Emmerdale (ITV1). It was an accident, but guilty-feeling Belle wants to plead guilty to murder. Brother Cain does what any family member would do – takes her to the cliff edge where her father Zak almost took his life a year ago (after he tried to kill Cain, but that’s another story).

Cain tells her that if she pleads guilty then her father will die. It’s enough to make Belle want to jump there and then. She might be joined by Donna, newly-returned to the village with her and Marlon’s daughter, April. She’s terminally ill, but has failed to tell anyone yet. She just wants April to get on with the father-she’s-never-known before revealing the truth about her illness.

Happier times in EastEnders (BBC1) which, quite honestly, is something I never thought would be said about the gloomiest place in Soapland. It’s a birth that brings the joy. Whose offspring is the furry little bundle that Surely Shirley is holding? Why Lady Di’s of course, the resident canine at the Vic who got pregnant by the Brannings’ dog Tramp after someone removed Lady Di’s doggy pants that were supposed to serve as a contraceptive device. Lady Di goes into labour in the Carter’s living room with Surely Shirley as the midwife, plus a little help from nephew Johnny.

Elsewhere in the Square, there’s much grief as Ian Beale learns that the body on Walford Common is his daughter, Lucy.

Denise decides this is not a good time to tell him their engagement is off and slips the ring back on her finger.

And back in Weatherfield, there’s another engagement as Terrible Tracy pops the question to Reckless Rob. She rather admires his criminal tendencies, notably his ability to do dodgy deals and get away with it. Two criminal minds are better than one, she reckons.