The SECRET'S out...

EMMA ATKINS on Charity's devastating discovery and what the future holds for her unlucky-in-love character

- ALISON SLADE

Put your phone on silent and get comfy on the sofa, for it's full-on drama in the Dales this week. After months of close shaves and near confessions, Charity finally learns that Mackenzie is the father of Chloe's baby.

It's a painful sucker punch for The Woolpack's landlady, who has had a turbulent and traumatic past and believed that the man she said 'I do' to just weeks ago was truly her 'other half.

TV Times caught up with Emmerdale favourite Emma Atkins, 48, to talk about the scenes viewers have been waiting for, and where Charity goes from here...

It's a monumental moment for Charity when she sees Mack with his baby son Reuben, and the penny drops. Was that tough to film, and did you feel the pressure to deliver?

It was hard to play, I won't lie. The stage direction says, 'It's panic,' so I spoke to Nicola Wheeler [AKA Nicola King], who's a connoisseur of filming panic attacks.

I did put a bit of pressure on myself, because it's an iconic soap moment, isn't it? You want to get it right, you want to make sure the audience can connect and go, 'Did you see it when she found out?!' It was a really crazy moment in my head, and I had to try to detach and just be the actress that I feel I am.

I've never been in the situation Charity's in, but I feel like I connected to it because there's so much history there. She's put all her eggs in one basket with Mackenzie [played by Lawrence Robb], and she's finally laid herself bare. She wasn't going to tell him about DI Bails and the abuse she suffered in the past, but she said to him, 'I'm ready to share my deepest, darkest secrets with you, because I know that I love you."

Can you tell us a bit about the aftermath will she flip out in true Charity Dingle style?