Soap legend Charlie Hardwick finds it easy playing a lazy, bitter teacher in school drama Ackley Bridge – thanks to the woman who shattered her childhood dream of becoming an artist.
Charlie – acid-tongued Val Pollard in Emmerdale for 11 years – says of new character Sue Carp: “I had a teacher who was very similar.
“In high school she really didn’t like us,” the Tynesider says.
“Art was my best subject and I’d always come top. I was always drawing and painting. It was what I wanted to do – where I found peace.
“She said, ‘You’re not good enough. I’m not putting you in for the O Level.’
“She told me I wasn’t good enough for art school. She was a rotter.
“She altered the course of my life. Luckily other adults intervened I got into the arts in a different way.
“Now I can channel her into Sue Carp.”
Charlie, 58, quit Emmerdale four years ago – but hasn’t moved far as the Channel 4 drama is based in a typical Yorkshire mill town.
It follows the lives of people affected by a merger of two schools in a largely segregated British and Asian community.
Cynical Sue Carp – responsible for meting out discipline to unruly pupils – lacks patience, is counting down the days until retirement and, worst of all, is a casual racist.
Which means Charlie must deliver some difficult lines.
“She has a disregard for cultural differences – in other words she’s a casual racist,” she admits.
“I understand why some people could be shocked at the things she comes out with.
“People have asked how I could say the lines – but no-one is promoting racism in this show. She is wrong and the kids are right.
“I’d have a raging row with her. I’d hammer her. I cannot abide it.
“I can’t bear that someone can be judged by the colour of their skin.
“I work for the charity Show Racism the Red Card – I’d lock her in a classroom and try educate her.
“She’s an absolute horror. She’s counting down the days like she’s in prison.
“I suppose Val was too, but in a different way.”
Charlie also insists it’s right that the show features teachers who are not up to standard.
“It’s important for young people to see the adults they’re in the care of can be wrong.” And Charlie should know. “I didn’t have a very good time at school,” she reveals.
“I was disruptive. I was the kind of girl that was in detention – usually for being hilarious, as I thought.
“I come from a funny family and if you can’t time a gag then you’ve had it.
“I assumed that was normal in every other situation.
“Thank God I work in theatre where childish behaviour like that can be absorbed.”
Charlie walked away from Emmerdale in 2015 – after playing Val for 11 years.
In that time she received seven British Soap Awards nominations including a win for Best Comedy Performance in 2006.
And her screen death was as dramatic as her character’s life.
Viewers saw a helicopter crash during the village fete and a shard of glass from a Hall of Mirrors fell on the fiesty redhead moments after a reconciliation with her sister.
She says: “I loved Emmerdale. It was my choice to leave.
“I have to say I was absolutely shocked when I found out they were going to kill Val.
“I think when you spend most of your life addressed and behaving like somebody else then you find out that they’re going to savagely annihilate her – I was really hurt.
"I was upset on her behalf. It was as brutal as you can get.
“That’ll teach us for saying time for me to go,” she jokes.
Charlie insists it didn’t take the shine off her time in Emmerdale.
In fact she says the main reason she wishes she hadn’t been killed off was so she could return one day.
But starring in Ackley Bridge has other advantages too – one is the chance to meet up with her old pals on the soap.
“I’m still in touch with my widowed husband Chris Chittell,” she says. “We’re good friends. I’m near my friends so I can hang out with them.”
And it also means she is free from the relentless pressure of producing a high pressure TV soap.
“I am happy for the slower pace,” she says.
“It’s measured. There’s a single camera so there’s time to rehearse, time to discuss how you should do the shots.
“It’s proper film making.
“It gives you the time to do the work to the best of your ability.
“At Emmerdale sometimes you’d be filming 12 episodes a week. It was tiring.” It’s not just Emmerdale that’s touched by TV tragedy.
Fans of Ackley Bridge were shocked last week when show
favourite Missy Booth (Poppy Leigh Friar) died after a
car accident.
In tear-jerking scenes students released fire lanterns into the night sky to remember their classmate.
Maybe even the hard heart of Sue Carp will be softened by their mourning.
But then again...
- Ackley Bridge continues on Tuesday at 8pm on Channel 4.
