‘My friend worked on Emmerdale – iconic star showed his true colours every day’

One Emmerdale icon shows his true colours every day behind-the-scenes, according to one source who spoke exclusively to Express.co.uk. Our source – who had a friend working backstage on the crew of the ITV soap explained that actor Chris Chittell, who plays Eric Pollard, was one of the nicest members of the cast.

The insider explained: “My friend said Jeff Hordley who plays Cain Dingle was a really nice bloke. He also said Rishi Sharma star Bhasker Patel was a real laugh and would drink in-between takes in The Woolpack. Also Eric [Chittell] is really nice apparently!”

They added: “I don’t think the on-set conditions are really great, they have to work in all weather and there’s a quick turnaround on episodes. My friend eventually quit and has worked on other ITV dramas.”

In the early days of his soap career, Chris feared he would be sacked by ITV bosses once they discovered he was once so poor he turned to starring in adult films.

Chris joined the cast in 1986 as Eric, but before that had made Swedish porn films including Sex in Sweden, Let Us Play Sex and Practice Makes Perfect.

He told The Sunday Mirror in 1997: “I did films like Let Us Play Sex and Swedish Sex Games when I was on my uppers after running up terrible bills and seeing various ventures fail. One was an antiques business. Another was a Jewish-Italian restaurant in Hatton Garden, London. I took them to pay off some heavy-duty people and clear the bills.

“I always thought I was going to be fired, even after years in Emmerdale. I thought I would never work in England again because of the content of those films. Thank God I’ve been on the up ever since.”