Lucy Pargeter will celebrate two decades as a much-loved member of the Emmerdale cast this year.
Now a busy mum-of-three, Lucy was just 24 when she joined the ITV soap and soon became firm friends with her female co-stars.
And her life today could not be more different from when she first played Chas Dingle.
Away from Emmerdale, her life is spent as a single mum to Lola, 16, and twins Missy and Betsy, four.
“Silly me, I’ve got one that has just finished school and two that have just started,” she grins.
“I turn up at school looking like I’ve been dug up. I’m not in my pyjamas but I’m probably not in anything that should be seen together – I just chuck a coat over whatever I can grab.
“I don’t know if it’s because there are two of them that I feel more tired, or the fact that I’m over 40.”
It’s a far cry from when Lucy joined the show aged 24, when spending hours over her appearance for a night out on the town with co-stars was a regular event
“Me and Sammy Winward used to be the gruesome twosome – we were out every night,” she recalls.
“I lived with Amy Nuttall for a bit, we had a little cottage in Leeds and the front door was always open waiting for a taxi.
“There was only wine and crumpets in the fridge and the whole place stank of fake tan.
“We’d finish work, go home, order the taxi, get ready and be in town half an hour later.
“Life has changed. Now at the end of the day I go home, feed the kids, learn my lines and go to bed.”
Despite being one of Emmerdale's longest-serving actors it doesn’t stop Lucy from worrying that every year on the show could be her last.
She is currently involved in a dramatic storyline where her character Chas Dingle losing The Woolpack, the pub which has kept her at the heart of the soap’s action for the past decade.
And when Lucy heard it was being taken away from her, she felt like the rug had been pulled from under her feet.
“It’s bizarre,” the 44-year-old says.
“It’s fictional, I don’t really own a pub, but that bar is like my second home and when I found out I no longer owned it, my heart sank.
“It was upsetting and unsettling, not only for my character, but for me too. I wondered, ‘Well, what’s my role in the village now? What else can I do?’
“It was gutting and made me feel even more insecure about my job.
“Every year I wonder if I’m still good enough to be on the show. And it’s not just when my contract is up for renewal – I worry through the year.
“If there’s a serial killer on the loose, you think, ‘Is it my time to go?’ It’s always unnerving when we’ve got big storylines coming up, or events like the 50th anniversary this year.
“I immediately think, ‘Oh God, they’re going to have to do something big for the 50th. Do they need to kill off a long-standing character in a spectacular way? Is that my exit?’”
Lucy’s self-doubts are all the more surprising because for the past two decades she has featured in major plots.
They include her 2002 arrival dressed as a nun at the stag night of her cousin Marlon, a secret affair with her niece Debbie’s boyfriend, being held hostage at gunpoint in an underwater siege and the death of her newborn girl Grace.
Lucy says the show is her life and she has no plans to leave, adding: “I’ve always said they’d have to carry me out of Emmerdale in a box, either real or fake!
“If they’d have me and I’m still as happy there as I am now, I’d be quite happy to retire there.
“Yorkshire is my home now. I’ve got three kids, a dog and a mortgage, so there’s the financial pressure too, so another 20 years would be fab.”
One aspect of the job Lucy is not so keen on is snogging scenes. “They’re awkward, it’s like kissing your friend,” she explains. Covid though has currently brought on-screen passion to an end.
“I did a scene recently insinuating Chas was going to kiss Paddy, but of course we had to shoot it separately and then they squished the screens together,” Lucy says.
Lucy, from Nottingham, almost had a pop career rather than acting. After leaving school she formed the band Paperdolls with pals and they signed to a record label and toured with Boyzone in the 1990s.
She says: “A lot of actors are described as a triple threat, meaning you can act, sing and dance.
“If you have that gene and one thing doesn’t work, you’ve always got something else to fall back on.
“The singing took off and then didn’t, so I focussed on my acting.”
After a brief time in Crossroads, she then auditioned for the role of Chas, the estranged mum of Aaron.
This week landlady Chas and husband Paddy are left saddened as they watch a “for auction” sign go up at The Woolpack.
But when Chas hears a rumour that Kim Tate is planning on bidding for it, her mood turns to anger.
“It infuriates her because Kim already owns half the village and they’ve never had a great relationship. She decides not to go to the auction but Charity persuades her,” Lucy says.
“The pub ends up being sold to a mystery online bidder and when she finds out who it is, she’s completely shocked.
“I think viewers will be as surprised as I was.”
Even though losing the pub makes for an uncertain future on screen, Lucy admits she is not one for making plans anyway.
“If I can get to the end of the week and the fridge is full, the jobs have been done, the clothes are clean, I’ve done my work the best I can, everyone is healthy and happy and we’re all having a snuggle on the sofa – that’s my bucket list,” she smiles.
- Emmerdale, ITV, every weekday at 7pm with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursday
