Emmerdale star Emma Atkins reveals Charity's secret emotions in family feud story

Emmerdale spoilers follow.

Charity Dingle's Emma Atkins has discussed her character's hidden feelings throughout Emmerdale's family showdown storyline.

In upcoming scenes, Charity and son Ryan Stocks will cut the ribbon on their refurbished Woolpack, while Chas Dingle effectively flattens its launch by hosting Liv Flaherty and Vinny Dingle's engagement party on the same day at the B&B.

Speaking to Digital Spy and other media, Atkins started by revealing how Charity initially takes this news.

Related: Emmerdale star Lucy Pargeter teases Chas and Charity's big showdown

"She's utterly devastated. She overhears Chas in the shop talking to [Eric] Pollard about it. At first Charity is smug and Chas is devastated, then it swaps again and the roles reverse.

"It's one-upmanship, within five minutes of the episode, the status changes," she said.

On the tension this creates between Charity and Chas, the soap star also shared: "It's game on. I'm sure, deep down, she doesn't want it because she knows that Chas is very sharp and very shrewd when she needs to be, so that element of competition is like 'Oh God', slightly wondering how it will turn out.

"But I guess when Charity is confronted in that way, she just goes 'Right, this is war' and so the next few episodes unveil a whole lot of exciting drama, to say the least."

Related: Emmerdale's Charles is caught out over secret Meena visits

Despite no doubt putting on a brave face, the task of re-opening The Woolpack is stressful enough.

"I think there's a whole lot of emotions going on," suggested Atkins. "She's nervous, she knows that she's got to pull it out of the bag. It's her way of going, 'I'm gonna impress the village, I'm gonna impress Chas and I'm gonna be the lady of The Woolpack', so she's got all these big ideas.

"But deep down there's this fear of 'What if I can't actually pull this off' and there's the underbelly of panic."

Who will win the war of the Dingles?

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays.

Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage.

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Dan Seddon

Reporter, Digital Spy 

Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment. 

In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.