Emma Atkins felt "overwhelmed" when she discovered Paul Copley was going to play her on-screen dad.
The ‘Emmerdale’ star has always been a big fan of the ‘Downton Abbey’ actor – who will debut as Obadiah Dingle next week – and she once auditioned to play his on-screen daughter Emma Kavanagh in 90s TV drama series ‘The Lakes’, in which Paul played Peter Quinlan, but lost out on the role to Emma Cunniffe.
She said: "I was so star-struck. I remember him years ago in ‘The Lakes’ – I auditioned for the part of Emma that Emma Cunniffe got in the end.
"I thought he was a brilliant actor so when I found out he was going to be playing Obadiah I was overwhelmed to be honest."
Charity will meet up with her father to seek more answers about her life after it was recently revealed she was abused by police officer DI Bails (Rocky Marshall) during her younger years, and he has now been sent to jail for 30 years for rape, wrongful imprisonment and prostitution.
But Emma has set her sights on some light relief later in her career – because she already has loads of ideas to start her own comedy sketch series.
She added to The Sun newspaper: "I would love to write and produce my own comedy sketch series. I like the idea of starting my own YouTube channel and putting characters on that.
"I’ve got loads of characters up my sleeve that I would love to have a go at doing. I’ve got characters that I’ve had for years and never done anything with."
Emma’s other major storyline has seen Charity get together with vet Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick), and the pair recently hinted wedding bells could be in the air for Vanity – as the characters are known by super-fans – but not for a few years.
Emma – who won Best Soap Actress at The TV Choice Awards last week – exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "We’ve not been told about a wedding, and I imagine they would certainly string things out before they do something like that – it will be a few years down the line maybe.
"That’s if we’re still there, if they still want us?
"But if something’s working and it seems to be, and the viewers are saying how much they love it …"
Emma Atkins’ ‘overwhelmed’ by Paul Copley casting
