Most people have thought about it: What would you do if you found out your other half had cheated?
For Emmerdale ’s Lucy Pargeter there’s no question, she’d do precisely what screen husband Paddy Kirk did to her character Chas Dingle last week after revealing he knew all about her affair with his nemesis, the late Al Chapman.
He swept her away for a special Christmas break in a holiday cottage Al had vowed to take her to, and told her he knew everything.
“It’s the kind of reveal I’d love to have done as a person,” laughs Lucy, 45, who has played Chas since 2002.
“You know if you found out your partner was having an affair, you’d kind of want to do something like that. ‘Oh no, everything is fine, sweetheart,’ then you turn up somewhere significant with them and go, ‘Aha! I know all about it!’ It’s absolutely brilliant!”
Dominic Brunt, 52, who has been part of the ITV soap as Paddy since 1997, agrees. “It’s a great reveal, it’s very Emmerdale. It’s a really good way of doing it,” he says. “Rather than a big showdown in the middle of The Woolpack, which is usually what happens, I thought it was very clever.”
It’s been an eventful year for Chas and Paddy, who have recently dealt with the death of Chas’ mum Faith, played by Gillian Jephcott, while her brother Cain languishes in prison having falsely taken the blame for Al’s murder to take the heat off his young son, Kyle.
It’s no surprise Lucy and Dom are looking forward to three weeks off for Christmas - although mum-of-three Lucy hasn’t even started thinking about the big day yet.
“I’ve done absolutely nothing,” she confesses. “We’ve always had a tradition of going shopping on Christmas Eve - we used to go out for lunch, get a bit tipsy then walk around the shops just grabbing whatever.”
Her eldest Lola, 17, is “being given the latest electricity bill” for Christmas as thanks for leaving all the lights on at home, while Missy and Betsy, the five-year-old twins she shares with ex Rudi Coleano, are hoping for a re-run of last year when Santa came round.
“My friend dressed up to surprise them and as he was walking through the garden his trousers fell down. So the girls’ favourite Christmas memory is seeing Santa’s pants,” she laughs.
Lucy has no time for Elf on the Shelf, who comes from the North Pole to pull pranks on children. “There’s enough for parents to do than having to get to the end of the night then go, ‘oh s***, I’ve got that stupid little thing to do.’” she says firmly. “So no, the elf has not arrived.”
Lucy also has no truck with parents who wear matching Christmas outfits with their kids. “It makes me feel like vomiting in my mouth when I see that,” she says, making gagging noises. “I sound like a complete Grinch but honestly, I’m not. It’s just way too much.
“The most Christmassy thing I’ve got is my skeletons that are still up from Halloween, and they’re all going to get Christmas hats and Santa skirts.
“Unfortunately it’s down to my painter who’s got some big ladders, he’ll be up there and I’ll be watching out the window!”
The big day itself is when Lucy gets to return to her own childhood and relinquish all adult responsibilities.
“I’m literally Mrs Won’t Cook, Won’t Cook,” she admits. “I think Christmas is all about being cooked for by my sister and her other half. I would travel four million miles for his bread sauce!
“It’s about me having no responsibilities for my children and sitting on the sofa doing as little as possible, being fed and adequately topped up with anything vaguely intoxicating.
“We then go for a massive walk with all the dogs, and Bertie, my bulldog, can’t wait to wear his reindeer antlers.”
It’ll be the calm before the storm for Lucy and Dom, who have filmed six weeks ahead for Emmerdale and stay tight-lipped about the future.
Dominic does let slip that the arrival of Chas and Cain’s secret brother Caleb – played by Will Ash – “spins Paddy out”. He explains: “Caleb turns up and he becomes an ally for Chas – Paddy’s not expecting that.
“He’s got all this ammo against Chas and suddenly he’s got this new chap saying, ‘well you’re not very nice are you? She’s a woman on her own,’ and you’re like, ‘ooh!’”
Soap fans are going to see Paddy increasingly bitter. “It’s not just his marriage, it’s the death of his daughter he didn’t really deal with, the death of his father,” says Dominic.
“He becomes more desperate, whatever he’s doing in his behaviour with Chas isn’t working to resolve these things, and I think it becomes quite unbalancing for him. He just doesn’t talk about it and that turns into a poison in his head. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes.”
Having a break from the busy TV set also means time off from social media, which both are looking forward to.
“You want to throw Twitter against a wall sometimes, because the whole point of Emmerdale is it’s about the drama,” says Dominic about the vitriol sent their way by trolls.
“It’s especially aimed at Lucy this time. You see them posting things like, ‘I hate that character, sack her.’ Sorry, you’re wishing for someone to lose their job because you’re angry about their storyline? But you’re enjoying it!
“Lucy’s acting her socks off and nailing this story. You just think, ‘you’re horrible, you’re really stupid.’ It makes my blood boil, it really does.”
Lucy, who bears the brunt of the hate against Chas, says she can take the heat. She says: “You have to stand up and go, excuse me, that’s about me, I’m not her and I don’t stand for everything she does, I’m just doing my job.”
