Charlie Hardwick was left "horrified" by Val Pollard's death in 'Emmerdale'.
Charlie Hardwick
The 60-year-old actress - who played Val for 11 years on the soap - was "absolutely devastated" when she first read that her character was going to be killed off, as she didn't want her to die.
She told the 'Soap on the Box' podcast: "It sounds absolutely ridiculous. If any actor had said to me, 'Oh, they’ve told me my character is going to die and I was absolutely devastated.' I’d say, 'Get a grip, man!'
"Then I found out I was going to die and I was absolutely devastated! But I was really, really horrified. Not because I wanted to come back, not because I thought, 'Ooh, keep the door open!' But because I didn’t want Val to die."
Val's time in 'Emmerdale' came to an end in 2015 when she was trapped in a mirror maze after a helicopter crashed into the village.
She met her demise when a shard of glass that was hanging above her ultimately fell and killed her.
However, Charlie assumed Val would leave the Yorkshire village to go in search of her foster daughter, Amy, as Charlie hated the idea of leaving her on-screen husband Eric Pollard.
She continued: "I just assumed she would go off after Amy, who was the biggest love of her life. And the idea that Pollard was going to be on his own, it was terrible. I even cancelled my leaving party!"
However, Charlie later changed her mind about Val's death as she realised it was better to "go out with a bang".
She added: "I did pull myself round, which I had to do.
"It was terrible when I first heard. But I talked to my niece and I said, 'They want to kill her off, just between me and you.' She said, 'Well, the thing is, if you’ve got to go, you might as well go with a bang.' I thought, 'You’re right, you’re absolutely right, I’ve got to get over myself and I’ve got to make the most of this exit'. And we relished it!"
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