Emmerdale's Lucy Pargeter reveals other Dingle she nearly played

Emmerdale's Lucy Pargeter is so synonymous with the character of Chas Dingle that we could never imagine her as anyone else, but recently reflecting on her two-decade long career on the soap, she revealed that she actually auditioned for a different member of the Dingle family initially.

In fact, it was her trouble-making cousin Charity that she wanted to play, before the soap's writers actually took inspiration from her audition to create a whole new character.

"I'd auditioned for a couple of parts before – one was a trucker and one was Charity. I got down to the final three for that," Pargeter shared with Inside Soap. "I knew James Hooton (who plays Sam Dingle) from drama classes and he said to me, 'Apparently you did something weird with your head in the audition and that put them off!', so I was like, 'Oh god!'. Then he called me and said there was a rumour they were bringing in another Dingle woman; they wanted her to be a bit like Charity but they were thinking about my audition and writing it around that. So I knew Chas would be strong and feisty."

charity dingle and chas dingle in emmerdale

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Having joined the soap in October 2002, Pargeter spoke of her disbelief that she is still on the soap, saying it's "ridiculous", before acknowledging that she never takes the opportunity for granted.

"As an actor you never have the luxury of planning ahead because you don't know when the next job is coming. It can be dangerous to get too comfortable in a job... But you should always see every working day as your first and try as hard as you did [back then]."

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In her time, Chas has faced a lot of drama and heartbreak which has moulded the character, something Pargeter says has "mellowed" her but that she still has some surprises up her sleeve.

"She's mellowed an awful lot. It used to be that if you looked at her wrong, that would be it – she'd be jumping over the bar and attacking you! But now she's settled for the first time in a long time, with someone who's quite normal (husband Paddy Kirk, played by Dominic Brunt). But I still find her interesting because she's always doing something that you wouldn't expect.

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"Paddy has to be the love of her life and they've been through so much. He's dependable and there's no danger. But there's part of Chas still burning in there that likes a bit of danger and a bit of dodginess, which is what she got from Carl King (played by Tom Lister). They're complete opposites – one gives her excitement, and one gives her stability and loves her unconditionally. If you could just combine them together it would be perfect!"

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays.