Best actress nominee Lucy Pargeter, who plays Chas Dingle in Emmerdale, has admitted she does not actually watch soaps.

Lucy, who missed out on the best actress award at the British Soap Awards after being shortlisted, said she did not have the time.

Emmerdale's Lucy Pargeter as Chas Dingle
Emmerdale’s Lucy Pargeter as Chas Dingle (ITV)

She said: “I don’t even watch Emmerdale, to be quite honest with you.

“I record it but I don’t watch it. We work till eight, so when you get home it’s half past eight. You get home, you shove some food down your neck, and try and see what happens, so I don’t really watch soaps. How awful’s that!”

Lucy Pargeter and Rudi Coleano at the British Soap Awards
Lucy Pargeter and Rudi Coleano at the British Soap Awards (Matt Crossick/PA)

But that does not make her less of a fan of soaps.

She said: “I think soaps are Britain’s staple, soaps are the people next door. I think we’re not necessarily put on the same playing field as dramas, which I myself don’t like.

“So many times we get people who do dramas, actors who come into our soap, and they say, ‘We don’t know how you do it’.”