The gloves are off in Emmerdale as the rivalry between Chas and Charity Dingle escalates into a full-blown food fight next week, and actors Lucy Pargeter and Emma Atkins, who play the quarreling pair, admit filming the fracas was a very memorable, and messy, experience.
Relations between the formally close cousins have become increasingly strained since Charity revealed herself as the new co-owner of The Woolpack in January. The sly move came as a huge shock to Chas, who was then forced to endure the humiliation of interviewing for her former role as bar manager.
After telling Charity where she could stick her job, livid Chas walked away from the beloved boozer she called home.
Next week, as Charity prepares to unveil her new-look pub to the locals, Chas takes a job at the B&B and deliberately arranges to host Liv and Vinny’s wedding reception on the same day as The Woolpack’s grand reopening.
In direct competition with one another, Chas and Charity employ all kinds of dirty tactics to try and sabotage each other’s events. And as tempers flare, the warring relatives end up having a food fight in the middle of the village.
“The thought of doing a food fight, external at the village, which is at least 20 degrees colder than anywhere else in the world, wasn’t appealing at all,” admits Lucy.
Emma adds: “We were like 'What is going on? Why are we doing this in the middle of winter, throwing cold chocolate at each other?' Although weirdly, adrenaline always seems to kick in, and actually I had a really good time.”
The on-screen brawl, which was entirely improvised and overseen by a stunt man, kicks off when Charity rubs Lydia’s homemade potato salad in Chas’s face, and from then on it’s war, with the ladies lobbing any kind of food stuff they can lay their hands on.
Lucy shares: “During the fight I did manage to tip an entire bowl of melted chocolate on Emma’s head! My kids thought I smelt amazing when I got home. I’d even had a shower, washed my hair, and the kids went 'Mummy, you smell really sweet.'"'
Emma reveals: “The chocolate dried on so you could knock it. I fell asleep reading a book to my son, woke up, and you could just see this brown all over my pillows!”
There may be no way back for Chas and Charity following their public spat, but Lucy and Emma have nothing but affection for one another.
Lucy says: “I love her (Emma) so much as a human being that I don’t care what it is I am doing with her, I just want to be filming with her. We know each other so well that we can visualise how we are going to do scenes.”
Emma agrees: “I think we have nice chemistry and there is so much history that people hopefully care about the characters. It’s great Charity and Chas can have fun and hate each other at the same time.”
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays - see our TV Guide for full listings. You can also catch up on ITV Hub now.
