Chas Dingle and Paddy Kirk face up to the heartbreaking reality their unborn child will not survive to full-term in next week’s Emmerdale, when the couple meet someone who has been through a similar pregnancy.
As they meet Joanne and she movingly shares her experience, Chas is determined to stay strong – but it brings into sharp focus the difficult time she and partner Paddy have been preparing for since learning their little girl has bilateral renal agenesis, a rare condition which means kidneys fail to develop properly in the womb.
RadioTimes.com spoke to Lucy Pargeter and Dominic Brunt about their emotional storyline and whether their characters can whether this devastating storm…
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Has being a mum of 14-month-old twins made this storyline harder, Lucy?
Lucy: It has been harrowing, yes. With some storylines you don’t have to necessarily go to the emotional place, you can use tear sticks, or wobble your lip and pretend to cry – whereas for the first time in a long time I’ve gone to places that I don’t want to normally go to.
Dominic: We sit through the script read-throughs sobbing, just imagining what it’s like for people experiencing this for real.
L: There is also some beautiful dialogue, and as much as it’s been difficult it’s been enjoyable to play their journey as a partnership. We are living it like they are in that we are playing things as when they find out, we found out.
How do you prepare for those emotional scenes?
L: I listen to music. I heard a programme on the radio with this woman telling her story about how she had twins but lost one of them, and of course I’ve got twins so it resonated with me and doing all these scenes for this storyline. They played an acoustic version the Ellie Goulding song How Long Will I Love You, and now it reminds me of her story and it just sets me off.
Have you met anyone who has been through this in real life?
D: No. We made a decision not to early on when we were asked. We talked about it and the problem is they will tell you exactly how they felt at that time, but that’s not the characters’ way of dealing with it. We decided we’d wait until we got the scripts through every time and live it with the characters as we go along, through the same stages as Chas and Paddy. I prefer that.
L: It was a conscious decision so we could play only what was on the page, because research for us as actors would colour the performance and stick in our heads. We played it how it’s been written, as our characters feel. That’s been useful. I think if I you’re playing someone who’s had a stroke or a heart attack, or something physical, then it’s helpful to talk to someone because if the physicality. But this is a purely emotion-driven storyline, and the emotions have to come from the page and not through research.
Is Chas hoping for a miracle?
L: Yes, and she has moments of reality hitting her. There’s loads of overwhelming positivity still inside her that something still might happen, something good will come of all this. They have a lot of conversations when it washes over her, but naturally reality keeps hitting them both as a couple.
Are they nervous when they meet Joanne, who has been through a similar experience?
L: It’s the hospice that recommend they meet with someone.
D: Even talking about a hospice makes them realise it’s not as far away as they first imagined. They keep thinking it’s well in the future. It’s creeping up on them and they suggest that they should speak to someone to get ready. So she tells her story.
L: Her baby died, even though something different was wrong with them she tells Chas and Paddy can ask her any questions, whether it’s about the birth or if she regrets anything. Joanne is a sounding board.
Can Chas and Paddy’s relationship withstand this?
L: I hope so.
D: Me too, but the differences between them are really interesting. Paddy can be a bit of a buffoon but ultimately he’s a good person and is trying to do what’s best for his partner in this situation. So I really hope they stay together.
L: They are two people going through the same experience but with different ways of getting through it. But then we’ve also got the aftermath of what happens, which I’m sure is going to be equally difficult.
D: Chas has a really good line: “It doesn’t matter if a child lives for a minute, an hour, or a day – that is is her lifetime”.
Who will be supporting them?
D: I’m hoping Chas’s son Aaron comes into it at some point because he’s been left out of the storyline so far.
L: Yes, he hasn’t had an awful lot to do with them and the pregnancy so I hope we have Aaron on board.
Do you hope Chas and Paddy eventually marry?
D: I want to be called Paddy Dingle!
L: That would be nice but I think the journey to a wedding is always more interesting, so if they keep the wedding in the distance and we have more of an experience getting to it. So if it’s there at the end, that would be great.
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