Emmerdale spoilers for next week follow.
Nick Miles has previewed difficult scenes ahead for Jimmy and Nicola King in more of Emmerdale's upcoming lockdown episodes.
The Kings will feature in a two-hander next week, as Jimmy comes to the difficult realisation that Nicola has grown deeply dissatisfied in their marriage.
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Though the couple have had their problems in the past, Miles has explained why the lockdown only amplifies the growing divide.
"He is used to her not being an easy person to live with, but the thing about Jimmy is that he is the ultimate survivor," the actor said. "He is the only King left standing after the family got itself pretty much universally killed.
"Jimmy would be the last man standing in any kind of disaster, he is sort of bullet-proof and that's why Nicola needs him."
Miles teased that Jimmy "definitely" becomes worried that his marriage might not survive while struggling to get to the root of Nicola's unhappiness.
"There's a strain because there is something wrong and he doesn't know what it is, he can't get at it and when your partner isn't being straight with you, we all know that can be a very challenging problem," he said.
Miles also more generally admitted that it was "a bit of a shock" to be among the few characters picked by Emmerdale producers for these special lockdown episodes.
"I got a call from one of our producers, but I always panic when I get a call from a producer," he recalled. "I thought it might have been a phone call to fire me, but it was actually about the lockdown episode! I was absolutely thrilled to be asked as there are only six episodes and Chris Gill has written a terrific script.
"I think it's Emmerdale gold, it's the kind of thing people will remember, the lockdown episodes will be speaking directly to people about what they have just experienced. Jimmy and Nicola going through this is always going to be fun and with three children!
"I know from my sisters that lockdown is a more difficult time with children. Nicola and Jimmy are busy people, Jimmy is a businessman and Nicola is always very active and suddenly they can’t do anything, they’re just running a household and that's it."
Miles explained that the process of making the episode was quite different because there wasn't the normal rehearsal process.
"The last time I did a two-hander was in 2006 which was at the Edinburgh Festival ‘Meeting Joe Strummer’ and you learn those quite easily because you’re endlessly repeating them in rehearsal, but the challenge here was that I had to sit down on my own and endlessly repeat it, which isn't so easy," he explained.
"I get distracted, and I didn't have the fun of the back and forth with Nicola Wheeler to keep me going. It's not that it's difficult, it’s just more that it's a bit of a task on your own."
He went on: "That was a very specific 90-minute window which was about blocking. The problem for us with this episode is that although Jimmy and Nicola are locked down together, they wouldn’t be social distancing by themselves, but Nicola Wheeler and I obviously aren't locked down so we have to obey social distancing when we shoot it.
"I think the hardest thing for us will be to make the blocking natural, in an unnatural situation. It’s very technical, so that 90 minutes we had were spent on working out where we were going to be on the set during each part of the play. It actually felt much more like a play, it had a touch of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? to it. It’s a terrific script."
The actor specifically mentioned that writer Chris Gill made the whole rehearsal process somewhat easier because he has a "great ear for characters" in his scripts.
"He has absolutely got how Jimmy and Nicola banter together and how they work as a couple," Miles pointed out. "There were some details that we had to change a little bit but it pretty much jumped off the page at us, we were thrilled with the script."
Once it was time to film, Miles and Nicola Wheeler also found themselves in a very unusual environment on set.
"We will have AD's standing around like spear carriers in a Shakespearean play," he remembered. "They will be there with a two-metre pole to leap forward to stop you moving towards each other and to stop us ever breaching the two-metre rule, so that's quite strange!
"The blocking has had to be very different to how we would normally approach it and I understand they're going to simplify things like camera movement."
The actor confessed that he's "very nervous" about how Emmerdale fans will respond to the lockdown episode, but said: "However, I think they will be very memorable episodes, although I've only read mine, just because of how they will relate to real people's experiences under lockdown.
"The challenge of them, for us of course, is filming with social distancing. I do hope we can pull this off, as it isn’t straightforward."
As for how he spent his time away from the soap in lockdown, the Emmerdale cast member said: "Nicola and I have exchanged texts about detail in the script. Nicola is amazing; she drills down to the finest detail in any script and she’s a joy to work with because you don’t get any surprises on the day.
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"The minute I was told it was going to be a two handler with Nicola I was jumping for joy! I’ve always loved working with Nicola so I hope she doesn't get bored of working with me!"
He went on: "I have been very fortunate. My sisters have got kids that they're locked down with and they are finding it a lot more challenging than I am. I've been phoning my parents every day who are in their 80's and have been trying to keep their spirits up!"
Emmerdale currently airs on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm on ITV as part of a new strategy to keep the soap on air throughout the pandemic.
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