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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Verity Sulway

Emmerdale stars return to eerie studio with ambulances and medical screenings

Emmerdale actors including Lucy Pargeter (Chastity Dingle) and Dominic Brunt (Paddy Kirk) have returned to the spooky set following the coronavirus shutdown.

ITV is hoping to film six new episodes of the soap over the next two weeks, featuring characters Mandy, Vinny, Cain, Aaron, Chas and Paddy.

Eden Taylor Draper, who plays Belle Dingle, and Nicola Wheeler, who plays Nicola King, have also been spotted back at work.

The set is worlds apart from how it used to be, as the Leeds-based studio has been forced to make lots of changes to adhere to new guidance.

Lucu dressed down in trendy skinny ripped jeans and a cream coloured cardigan (JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)

All actors and crew members must remain socially distanced, and the producers are working closely with a health and safety team as well as medical advisors to ensure all the workers are kept safe.

There is an ambulance on standby and cast and crew are subject to medical screenings as well as following social distancing guidelines.

Huge signs warning workers to ensure they spread out can be seen outside the stage door as a constant reminder, and the canteen facilities have been shut down for now.

Actress Lucy Pargeter, who plays Chas Dingle, arrived at the set (JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)
The studio has shut down its canteen facilities due to the pandemic (JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)

Filming units are separated out into separate studios, while the camera equipment is all thoroughly sanitised before and after use.

The upcoming episodes of the show filmed since the pandemic will not feature any scenes from locations outside of the usual set.

ITV also explained that they have adapted their scripts so that fewer actors and scenes are needed for each episode.

Dominic Brunt could be seen heading into the newly socially distanced set (JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)
A medic and ambulance are outside the studio in case of any health issues (JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)

The soap is currently running on a reduced schedule after show bosses halted filming in March due to the growing concerns about coronavirus.

Lucy could be seen looking trendy in a pair of grey ripped skinny jeans, peace sign t-shirt and cream cardigan as she arrived back to her workplace.

Dominic looked comfy in a navy t-shirt and blue jeans as he carried his case into the studios.

Dominic Brunt in character as Emmerdale's vet Paddy Kirk (JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)
Nicola Wheeler inspected the bottom of her hand bag as she exited her car (JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)

He could later be seen as Paddy in his trademark red Land Rover with a bucket sun hat on.

Eden arrived with a takeaway coffee to perk her up as she got back to filming her dramatic scenes after Belle's affair with Jamie Tate was revealed to the village by his furious wife Andrea.

Nicola looked summery in a denim jacket thrown over a black dress, holding her lunchbox and bottle of water ahead of a long day filming.

(JOHN MATHER/IMAGEVIEW)

Harriet Finch actress Katherine Dow Blyton recently revealed to MirrorOnline that kissing scenes were now banned, including planned ones with her flame DI Malone (Mark Womack).

She said: We were supposed to have a big snog but we had to keep a distance and leave everything to the audience’s ­imagination. I think this will be the norm when we go back.”

* Emmerdale currently airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7pm on ITV.

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