Emmerdale's Lucy Pargeter has opened up about her "most challenging" storyline that once caused her to have a "meltdown" on set.

The star, who has been playing Chas Dingle in Emmerdale since 2002, recently joined the vodcast Off Script hosted by former co-star Kelvin Fletcher and his wife Liz.

Kelvin, aged 41 and known for his role as Andy Sugden from 1996 to 2016, delved straight into questioning Lucy about the most demanding plot she's faced on the ITV soap.

Lucy candidly responded: "The baby loss - Grace. Losing baby Grace was the hardest." She also touched upon her personal experiences, adding: "I'd just had twins and as you know twin life is difficult.", reports .

She described using the intense storyline as a way to navigate through her own emotions, which she acknowledged could be risky, but it coincided with a tough period both personally and professionally.

"This was a hard story but I used it in a cathartic way to try and go through quite a lot of my own emotions while playing the storyline, which is quite dangerous to do, but it was a challenging time personally and on the show. It's the hardest one I've done." she confessed.

Reflecting on that time, Lucy expressed gratitude towards her colleague, revealing she experienced a breakdown during filming.

She recounted: "I'm really proud. Me and Dominic Brunt - incredible. There were days when I had a meltdown on set, you know like an emotional kind of meltdown. And he was there and we kind of let each other go wherever they needed to go and we were just there for each other."

Kelvin highlighted the importance of trust and respect between actors, noting: "You have that trust and respect and I know Dominic, who plays paddy, and just to have that genuine love and admiration for your fellow actor.."

Lucy chimed in: "He was just incredible on that storyline. You can feel embarrassed, sometimes when you're acting in these scenes you're like: 'Oh God, am I really playing it like this? I'm quite embarrassed to go there!'".

"But to have someone you're working with to go: 'Just do whatever you need to do, I might laugh at you in private...' No, not really, but you're in a safe space, to just be able to play with it and go there!".

Grace Dingle was the child of Chas and Paddy Kirk, born in October 2018, several months after Chas discovered her pregnancy in February, having forgotten her contraceptive injection. Tragedy struck, however, when little Grace passed away shortly after birth, surviving for only 29 minutes.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays