Emmerdale star Chris Bisson has revealed that his performance in the soap has been helped by the fact that he has become a dad off screen at the same time as his character has also experienced first-time parenthood.
His screen alter ego Jai Sharma has secretly fathered Rachel Breckle's baby, following a drunken one night stand - while in real life Chris has welcomed son Harry, his first child with partner Rowena Finn.
"It's been a strange coincidence that the babies have been timed in real life and pretend life," Chris admitted. "The timelines we were playing were almost identical. It made things real.
"It made things easier to play in some ways because I instinctively knew how I would feel in real life, and in some ways it made it more difficult to play, because [on screen] Archie suddenly came very prematurely and you've got this jeopardy and internal turmoil and heartache that you're playing out and you have to remember that's not real. So that was hard."
Having recently returned to Emmerdale from paternity leave, Chris is set for some dramatic storylines as Jai finds that his wife Charity - who does not know about his child - has had a fling with his best friend Declan Macey, played by Jason Merrells.
"He's angry with both of them, it would be hard to separate them," Chris admitted. "Obviously Jai and Charity's marriage has been on the rocks, but he wouldn't have expected his best mate to do that. He's angry with them both in different ways.
"He has reasons to forgive them both, so he's in a very difficult position because he hasn't been an angel himself."
