Emmerdale star teases "complex year" ahead for Charity Dingle after nightmare labour in early ITVX release
Warning: Contains spoilers for Monday's episode of Emmerdale, which airs at 8pm on ITV1 or can be streamed now on ITVX.
Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) has gone into labour in Emmerdale - and it couldn't have gone worse.
Her entire pregnancy has been somewhat of a shambles, having originally intended to fall pregnant with granddaughter Sarah Sugden's (Katie Hill) child with husband Jacob (Joe-Warren Plant), after agreeing to be a surrogate. However, following a brief fling with Ross Barton (Michael Parr), she began carrying his child instead.
She's decided to keep it a closely-guarded secret, and although husband Mack (Lawrence Robb) knows that the newborn might not be Sarah and Jacob's, he believes that he could be father instead.
In today's episode, Charity and Mack planned a baby shower for the happy couple, but realised that the cake still had to be collected from a bakers. The two set off on the journey through some country lanes - but the car soon broke down.
With neither of them having a mobile to hand, it seemed like they would be stranded. To make matters worse, Charity's waters broke.
Ross was driving along the same road (in a moment which Atkins described to Radio Times and other media as "mortification personified for Charity") and offered to take them to the hospital, something which Charity was vehemently against. The day was about to get a lot worse though, as upon arrival at the maternity ward, the trio were trapped in a lift.
Ross and Mack were going to have to deliver the baby.
"They’re both trying to, initially, keep Charity calm," Atkins continued.
"Ross is trying to get the intercom to work to get help. And Mack suddenly finds himself in this lift and it triggers off PTSD from his being trapped in the bunker. Then you just hear this panicking in the corner and it’s Mack. It’s amusing in the fact that, A) she’s just gone into labour and B) he can’t bear small spaces.
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"He just recoils into the corner and is like this frightened animal."
Unfortunately, in scenes that will air later this week, matters worsen when Charity begins to haemorrhage. If the weight of the baby secret wasn't enough, she's now facing death!
"There’s every possibility that it’s just not looking good," Atkins explained.
"The odds are stacked against her in terms of giving birth in that situation. All sorts of complications have come into it, so it’s touch and go, and everyone’s fraught with emotion.
"It was like being in an episode of Casualty, with doctors running around and lots of medical vocab."
Atkins also addressed the possibility of the baby secret being exposed, and what this could mean for Charity's future: "I think at that point, she’s so unaware of the situation because she almost loses consciousness. But I think she does understand that every day from now on will be the risk of them finding out, so she is going to be living on broken glass."
She continued: "That feeling that any day, somebody could say the wrong thing, especially Ross, so she’s got to keep people on side. It’s constantly keeping her head above the parapet. She knows what that’s like.
"She’s forever been embroiled in all sorts of trouble and tribulations. She’s a soldier with that - a warrior.
"But, at the same time, I think she understands the gravity of that truth coming out and the implications and how that would haemorrhage everything in the Dingle clan. The trust will be utterly fractured forever.
"I went to see the producer, Sophie Roper, yesterday to talk about the future storylines and whatnot, and I have such a complex year coming up. I’m so excited. It’s probably going to be one of my favourite storylines."
Read more:
- Emmerdale airs heartbreaking Moira Dingle scenes as she makes sad discovery following prison release in early ITVX release
- Emmerdale airs distressing Bear Wolf scenes as new Ray Walters theory emerges in early ITVX release
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and from 7am on ITVX.
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Authors
Michael Adams is the Soaps Editor at Radio Times, covering all of the hot gossip and spoilers from Weatherfield to Walford, Emmerdale to Hollyoaks and everywhere in-between. He joined the team from Metro, where he spent two years as a Soaps Reporter and previously worked on the sets of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
