Packing the punches

Gloves are off in Emmerdale plot....as star Lewis tells why he chose not to follow boxing brothers into ring

- SUE CRAWFORD

IF Emmerdale actor Lewis Cope had followed in his family's footsteps, he'd be slugging it out in a boxing ring. Instead he's playing handsome nanny Nicky in the ITV soap, who last night floored viewers in a shock plot twist.

While his brothers Adam, Danny and Peter all won the Northern area title as professional fighters, Lewis chose a different career - dancing.

By the age of 11 he was appearing in one of the leading roles in Billy Elliot: The Musical in London's West End.

For some young boys that could have led to derision but Lewis says: "I never got any stick at school - it probably helped that I had brothers in every year and that they were boxers.

"But I was also able to charm and joke with classmates, so it was never a big thing. I was very lucky, for somebody else it could have been different.

Lewis's story caught the eye of David Beckham, and in 2020 he asked him to be in his advert for his fragrance Bold Instinct. Lewis, from Hartlepool, Co Durham, recalls: "I'm from a family of 14. Most of my brothers are boxers, but I chose to dance.