AFTER THAT SHOCK EMMERDALE TWIST - EMMA ATKINS AND MIKE PARR SPEAK OUT

During tonight's hour-long episode (Thursday 14th August), viewers to the Yorkshire based soap watched as Charity Dingle had flashbacks to a drunken night when she kissed Vanessa Woodfield. Following this, Vanessa turned Charity out onto the street clearly rejecting her. Charity then found Ross Barton who offered her comfort. This a twist that many wouldn't haven't seen coming, but one for soapland.

With Ross now aware of Charity's surrogacy pregnancy announcement pressed her to know if the baby could potentially be his. Charity attempted to reassure him by stating that she is carrying an embryo. However, as the celebrations in the pub continued, Ross's persistent question regarding the baby's paternity remained unanswered.

Talking about if filming these scenes were fun, Mike Parr said: “They were great and the relationship is so spiky and antagonistic between Ross and Charity - it’s fun to do.” Then when Mike was asked about there being a lot of twists and turns to come and if it was enjoying it, Mike added “It's been so much fun working with Emma. It's always a joy as they write so well for Ross and Charity. I’m grateful to be back on the show.”

Photo Credit: ITV/ Emmerdale

When Emma Atkins was asked about whether it was fun to know if a twist like this is coming before the viewers, Emma added “Yeah, it's absolutely brilliant to play knowing that Charity is in such a mess now. This has created a huge element of conflict for her and as an actor you can't hope for a better storyline. When you're just in the midst of chaos, dilemma and moral questioning of your own character. It makes you go, how are you going to get yourself out of this one? And I know the audience will just be like, oh my God, what will she do? Who can she tell? Because I think they all are going to immediately jump to the idea of, hang on then it's not Sarah and Jacob's baby.” Before continuing “I think it is just a jaw dropping moment for those that have followed the storyline. Because it just ups the stakes with everything. Sarah's just got this desperate need to be a mum, Charity's so desperate to please Sarah in that, she feels her vocation is being this vessel to carry this child. There's so much at stake for them and the audience finding this out, is just that amazing moment. It's a good soap moment, a gift.”

When asked about how interesting this storyline has been, Emma added: “At first I was thinking, this is the most crazy idea of a woman potentially giving birth to her great granddaughter, but actually, there's so much in it that is believable, because she loves Sarah. Sarah's been desperate to be a mum for so long and when she woke up to that awful news that she'd had a hysterectomy, Charity wanted to swoop in and save her. Even though at first she was against the idea of Sarah being a mom at all. After at first trying to fight off and dissuade Sarah. She suddenly turned around and said I'll do it. Anything to help Sarah. Also, I think the audience has brilliantly got behind it. I didn't know how they would react, but it has been really positive feedback so far.”

Without giving too much away with many great scenes coming up and keeping everyone happy at home, Emma commented: “It's brilliant. I've got some amazing scenes with Michelle, amazing scenes with Mike, amazing scenes with Lawrence, and of course, Katie Hill who's fantastic. They're all brilliant to work with and so it gives me that element of chaos and as an actor that is wonderful to play.

Before ending the interview by answering about loving her work and doing what she loves everyday, Emma continued: “I look forward to it because the storyline is written so brilliantly - the writing has been fantastic and we're getting some brilliant directors in. It's just a joy to come to work every day.”

Emmerdale continues tomorrow (Friday 15th August) on ITV1 at 7.30pm.