Emmerdale’s Charity Dingle star details ‘plan to leave soap’ ahead of personal milestone

Emmerdale legend Emma Atkins has revealed that she is thinking about taking a year out from the soap to do some travelling, following almost 25 years in the village.

The Charity Dingle actress, who joined the soap back in 2000, will mark two special milestones in her life next year; a quarter of a century on the soap, as well as her 50th birthday.

Ahead of her milestone, the 49-year-old shared that she had been thinking about her future and what she is yet to fulfil in her life.

Addressing her plans, she shared: “I might take a year out at some point in the future – do some travelling, do some other jobs – but at the moment, I’m here to stay.

“As long as they’re writing brilliant stuff for my character and I love playing her, I don’t feel the need to go off and do anything else.”

The actress went on to insist that she hadn’t expected to stay on the soap for as long as she had after working as a “jobbing actor”.

While this meant a job wasn’t always guaranteed, Emma believes it worked in her favour when she returned to the soap in 2009, following a break.

“It was a good period of time to learn more about acting and then when I got invited back into Emmerdale, I thought, I can make this an even better character now,” she added to My Weekly magazine.

Charity, a mother-of-four (biologically) in the soap, has been involved in numerous high-profile storylines during her time on the show from marriages, to affairs, the arrival of her long-lost daughter Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb), and a period behind bars.

More recently, Charity is on a mission to free her cousin Belle (Eden Taylor Draper) from her abusive partner Tom King (James Chase), who has upped his plans to remove her from her family and the village.

“She’s aware that over the past six months she’s seen less and less of Belle, and her personality seems to be dulled down,” she said of the storyline.

“There are a few red flags and she’s not willing to keep quiet about it – but I’m not sure anyone is listening.”

Will Charity be able to save her in time?

As the storyline continues to unfold, producer Laura Shaw has expressed her astonishment at viewers’ reaction so far.

She said: “We said right from the beginning that we wanted to tell this story as truthfully and authentically as we can and let’s face it for people who are subjected to domestic abuse this isn’t something that’s over in a couple of weeks.”

“I think the audience reaction has been phenomenal. Domestic abuse is not new to soaps but the reaction has been incredible and the letters and comments we’ve had from women and men reaching out, and we’re aware we’re giving people a voice to speak out and that’s what we want.

“What we will see is Tom finding different ways to manipulate Belle and to control Belle so we will see an escalation.”

Emmerdale continues tomorrow night at 7.30pm on ITV and ITVX.