After four years in the red-hot cauldron of Coronation Street, Bill Ward needed no warning of the pressures of soap life when joining Emmerdale.
But the Geordie actor says he’s got a snap-happy way of easing the tensions.
“I’m a photographer and when I’m not filming here in Leeds, that’s what I do,” explains Bill, who joined ITV’s other big soap last year as James Barton.
“After I’ve learned my lines for the next day I’ll go out along the canals here and just lose myself.
“Although we’re filming most days, you might do one or two scenes and you’re done quite early.
“If there’s enough time when I’m not here I’ll get myself to the coast.
“I like to take pictures of water. It takes me somewhere different. It’s good for the brain and gives me a chance to relax.”
Bill’s Corrie stint as builder Charlie Stubbs had no shortage of controversy, including his abusive relationship with Sally Lindsay’s Rovers’ landlady Shelley.
His affair with Maria saw him killed off by Tracy with the shocking exit earning Bill two wins at the British Soap Awards in 2007.
There’s plenty of drama at the moment with James’s growing suspicion this week’s that sister-in-law Moira’s son, Adam, might actually be his.
“They had a one-night stand away back then,” explains Bill.
“For Moira it was just that, but for James it was one of the highlights of his life.
“When he realises Adam is 22, not 21, it strikes him there is a possibility that he could be his son.
“He tries to have conversations with Moira about it but she doesn’t want to go there.
“She keeps shutting it down, each time more abrupt than before.
“When she won’t discuss it, it makes his hackles rise and increasingly suspicious that there is a chance that Adam could be his.”
Tensions aren’t helped by an angry James almost accidentally running over Adam in the tractor and then losing £10,000, carelessly left lying.
Whether the truth of the paternity, Bill reckons it makes good telly.
“The conflict comes from one of the wanting to get to the truth and the other not wanting that to come out,” he adds.
“If Adam is his son it means James is going to have to tell the boys that they’ve got a brother and also that he was unfaithful to their mother.
“He’ll have to admit that in many ways the last 22 years have been a life.
“So there’s a lot of drama in this story.”
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