Who would live in Emmerdale in October? At around about this time every year, the soap village gets hit with killer storms, cow stampedes, motorway pile-ups and exploding barns, to name but a few catastrophies.

This year is no different. As part of ITV’s ‘Super Soap Week’ – an annual television event which showcases their serial dramas in a high-octane way – Emmerdale has prepared a spectacular car crash, one which leaves the lives of three major characters literally hanging in the balance.

After Mack Boyd’s one night stand with Charity Dingle is exposed to the mum of his child Chloe Harris, all hell breaks loose and a cliffhanger sums up the week’s episodes in more than one way.

Emma Atkins, the show stalwart behind resident minx Charity, promises that it is both ‘action-packed’ and ‘edge of your seat’ stuff.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Metro.co.uk, she reflects on filming dramatic and pretty risky stunt scenes, which leads to a car teetering over a quarry before it then plunges onto the rocks below.

‘I felt in awe of what we’d achieved, like I’d been part of something really special,’ the actress, 48, tells us. ‘It was just like being in a little film and I just felt so excited and proud. I was like a kid and I’m nearly 50, so I was like, “This is awesome! I feel like I’m in a Marvel movie!”

‘When they said “You’re part of Super Soap Week”, I got shivers down my spine when they told us what was happening.

‘They explained to us what would be happening and we all had goosebumps, we were all three of us sat in a row like, “Wow! That’s amazing! This is so good.”

‘We were all excited by the prospect of being part of something really dramatic that had stunts, that involved the three of us together.’

There were a lot of technical elements to putting together the stunt. To simulate the scene of the car flying off the cliff edge, the vehicle and the actors were spun at speed in a contraption called a gimble, which Emma describes as a ‘giant hamster wheel’ and a ‘fairground ride of horror.’

There’s also the matter of being dangled over a cliff.

‘It did feel authentic so I hope to God it looks authentic – because what we were feeling was genuine, it just felt like we were slipping away.’

It didn’t come without nerves for the star, who first joined Emmerdale way back in 2000. She admits that she was the most scared of performing the stunts out of the trio, which also comprises of Lawrence Robb as Mack and Jessie Elland as Chloe.

‘The amazing safety team who are doing all the big stunts, they’ve worked Bond and all sorts,’ she says.

‘Even though I knew we had ankle straps, you can’t help but think “What if?” You run through it all in your mind. I don’t know if that’s my age or whatever. I was trying to go over in my head how safe we were.’

While he cast and crew may have little to worry about, but the same can’t be said for the characters, who all face death.

Viewers will be wondering if Charity, Mack and Chloe will survive the crash and, even though she has been with the show for 23 years and off, Emma reminds us that no actor can take their place on a soap for granted.

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Meaning there’s every chance that we could see Charity killed off next week.

‘Nobody’s invincible, the character has a shelf life and you always have to expect that your contract may not be renewed.

‘You’ve also got to accept that there is a life outside of Emmerdale and you have to be as fearless in that department as possible. I don’t like to assume because it makes you complacent.

‘I just think, “That’s great, another year under my belt and how wonderful to be playing a character that’s ever evolving, constantly learning, constantly making mistakes.”’

The storyline itself has been a long-running one, from an ill-advised kiss between the pair while Charity was married to her.

Since then, Charity and Mack embarked on their tumultuous relationship, which led to the revelation that Mack is the father of Chloe’s baby almost a year ago.

‘I think the way they’ve done it is very clever,’ Emma said. ‘They’ve let it breathe so they’ve given the audience the chance to get on board and understand the pickle that Mackenzie is in. In a way I believe that he does actually care very deeply for two different people, for very different reasons.

‘And therefore he’s not just a love rat, so it makes it a way more interesting story to tell because there’s so many layers. When there’s a child in the mix, you can’t just switch your feelings off from somebody when they’ve had your child so there’s a real emotional attachment there to Reuben and to Chloe as well.

‘I love a story where I know there’s a journey and a lot of the time, as much as I love my character, I can be doing things like robbing cars one minute, putting on a wig the next.

‘When I get stuff like the Bails storyline or this storyline it does give me the chance to be challenged as an actor in that way. I’ve felt truly blessed by it. And I think we all feel the same.’

Away from the drama on screen, it’s very clear that keen photographer Emma is the polar opposite to Charity and, after what she describes as heavy days, she prefers to relax with breathing exercises, while immersing herself in documentaries.

It’s through watching these that she has taken a fresh look at how she lives.

‘There are these pockets in the world where people are living into their 90s and 100s by not being on a diet of sugar or synthetic stuff.

‘For their whole lives, they sit on the floor in social situations so they’re constantly getting up and getting down, so their core is really strong.

‘They’re not watching telly, they’re not on social media, they’re playing games together and reading books and having chats around a few hours of mealtimes. It’s a no brainer!

‘We’re living this fast-paced way of downloading the next best app, looking through Instagram mindlessly. We’re all addicted to our phones to a certain degree.’

Addressing the breath work she does to wind down from this side of life, and from hectic filming schedules, Emma adds: ‘Someone said the other day the best teacher in the world is your actual breath.

‘You can just sit there and with a bit of focus and effort, just for three minutes, you can change the energy from feeling slumped to ready for the day.

‘Because of the hours we work, little tools like that are so helpful.’

Focusing on mindfulness is doing Emma the world of good, but there’s no chance of any relaxation or zen for alter-ego Charity, especially if next week’s gripping cliff plunge is the end of her.

Will she make it out of this scrape? You don’t have to wait long to discover her fate.

Emmerdale will air the crash scenes on Tuesday October 10 at 7:30pm on ITV.

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