I Was A Nightmare Teenager!

Emmerdale's Lucy Pargeter has a busy life juggling work and children, but insists she's never happier than when on the go

- SUE CRAWFORD

With five-year-old twins, a teenager and a full-time job as Emmerdale's feisty man-eater Chas Dingle, actress Lucy Pargeter doesn't get a lot of time to put her feet up. So it's just as well that the hard-working mum actually prefers it that way.

"I like to be on the go and I can't sit still for very long, I've never learned how to. There's stuff that needs to be done, so I always think I should be doing something else," Lucy explains.

"I can't even sit and watch television. I potter. If I have the telly on, I'm not really sitting down, I'm doing stuff at the same time. I don't tend to watch a lot of series or films, because I can't stay focused for that long.

"I don't know what to do if things are quiet. I'm not somebody who can just sit and twiddle my thumbs."

Lucy, mum to twins Missy and Betsy and 17-year-old Lola, admits she can't even stay still long enough to enjoy a visit to the hairdressers. Meanwhile, at work she prefers to do her own make-up as it's quicker.

"Sitting there being pampered seems overindulgent," she explains. "I have a massage every two weeks, which helps me iron out any problems with my body, but I get bored at the hairdressers after half an hour." It's that drive and determination that has seen Lucy forge a successful career.

After parts in Soldier, Soldier, Dalziel And Pascoe and Crossroads, she joined Emmerdale in 2002.