Emmerdale star Emma Atkins shares Charity stabbing plot aftermath
Emmerdale spoilers follow.
Emmerdale's Charity Dingle desperately tries to isolate herself from her family next week after accidentally stabbing her husband Mackenzie Boyd.
Charity reached breaking point this week and violently lashed out at Mackenzie during a night terror, believing that Damon 'Harry' Harris had come back to haunt her and she was acting in self-defence.
The dramatic week of episodes concluded with Charity urging the police to charge her, while Mackenzie showed signs of recovery in hospital as he regained consciousness.
Emma Atkins, who plays Charity, recently caught up with Digital Spy to share what's next for the storyline.
What was your reaction when you found out that Charity would stab Mack?
"I guess I was first quite worried about how feasible that could be, but I did have a really interesting conversation with a psychologist about how Charity's night terrors had built this up. With constant severe sleep deprivation, it was almost like an out of body experience for Charity.
"She's not herself. She's not behaving in a way that somebody would if they'd had a full night's sleep every single night. Sleep deprivation causes all sorts of alarming things to take place in one's psyche.
"So once I'd spoken to the psychologist, I thought: 'Oh my goodness, this sort of thing actually can happen'. I knew that I had to commit and make it as interesting, believable and authentic as possible. I knew that I'd be working opposite Lawrence [Robb, who plays Mackenzie] and he's brilliant, so hopefully it would be great."
How will Charity deal with this situation now?
"Charity and Mackenzie go in very opposite directions. Charity is in total shock to begin with. She wants to be charged for the accidental stabbing, because she just feels she's not in control of her own actions and she's terrified.
"Charity bolts everyone out of her life and home. She even tells Mackenzie to take the kids as she just doesn't feel responsible enough. She's frightened with what she might do. So she isolates herself and ostracises herself from her kids, Mackenzie and the wider family."
How do Charity's family respond?
"Charity cuts herself off and it's Cain who comes into the house and brings her to her senses a little bit by saying: 'We need to pull rank, we need to get the family involved. You need to come out of the shell that you're in and get help'.
"Cain takes Charity on a walk. They go through the woods but Charity says: 'I just don't want to. I can't be with anyone, I can't be near anyone, I don't trust myself'.
"Cain asks why Charity won't consider counselling, but Charity feels that once she unravels this hellhole of her life to someone, there's no stopping her and who knows what might come out?
"Cain still thinks it's a good thing and makes reference to the fact that Kyle killed Al – because he's obviously been through counselling as well. Charity doesn't think that it's the same kind of situation. So she's just trying to deny that she needs help.
"Obviously Chas comes to the rescue as well. Eventually Charity makes an appointment with a doctor and she agrees that she needs help – real help."
Can you tell us about Charity's scenes with the psychologist?
"Dr. Cavanagh refers her to a psychologist and they have this amazing therapy session. It starts off where Charity is in complete denial. She's being very sarcastic and completely rude to this lovely woman, who's trying to help her open up these doors to healing and finding some way in, but every time she tries she blocks her.
"Then it takes a beautiful turn. The psychologist asks: 'Look, why not talk about a lovely childhood memory, a pet that you might have had?' Charity talks about a dog that she had when she was a kid.
"The journey starts then because Charity starts to go right back into the dog, how the dog disappeared and how that involved the issues she had with her father. It all starts to unravel.
"Because as much as Charity is going through hell now, I think there's so much PTSD attached to her past as well. So it's all relevant, I guess.
"It's a lovely episode to discuss how much Charity truly loves Mack. He's the one person that she feels that she has begun to love and let her guard down. This person is perfect for her but she feels she's completely ruined it and lost his trust."
Do they have a future?
"There's a lovely scene coming up where Charity has had a therapy session and she just can't take it anymore. She just wants to run away a little bit, so she does.
"Mack goes hunting for her and finds her broken down in exactly the same spot where they met. Mack brings that to her attention.
"It's a love story – I think it would be such a shame to have come all this way, built these bridges and cemented their future, despite what's happened with the stabbing, only for them to split up.
"I mean, the stabbing was so accidental – it's not like there's any intention there. But obviously it's down to Mack whether he can live with that, but of course he can, because he loves her.
"If they can get through this, they can get through anything. If you were to list what they've experienced over the past two years alone, you'd be like: 'Has that really happened to a couple?'"
Is there a part of you that thinks they should call it a day after so much destructive drama?
"I think the beauty with Charity and Mackenzie is they are not particularly destructive to one another. Whenever they are together, they have fun and want to make each other laugh. There's never a want to bring the other one down – it's always been to big each other up.
"I think there's been catastrophic events around the circumstances, like Mack sleeping with Chloe and the break-up. When you actually pinpoint it all, I don't think they're a destructive couple. I think they are a brilliant soap couple and I think they should stay together.
"If they hadn't broken up for a while last year, we wouldn't have had this rollercoaster of stories. I feel very lucky and blessed. They've been quite serious and dramatic and again I've loved that. I am looking forward to a little bit of light humour to go with the serious stuff.
"Charity and Mack are quite good at listening to one another and accepting one another's flaws. I always go: 'Oh God, have you read that scene?' There was one where Mack said: 'I love you, and I love the way you fart and snore'.
"I was thinking: 'Who's written this? Making Charity to be like that'. (Laughs.) But I think accepting one another's flaws on that base level, you’re onto a winner with those things.
"They make each other laugh and they have their issues. It always makes for interesting TV when you have two flawed people who are falling for each other, I guess that's why it works."
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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