Emmerdale's Amy Walsh calls filming the factory fire her 'most challenging' career moment

It was such a tragic episode

Author: Emma DoddsPublished 6th Aug 2019

Emmerdale's Amy Walsh has opened up about filming the factory fire which devastated fans up and down the country. It was revealed that Amy's character Tracy Metcalfe's father, Frank Clayton (Michael Praed), had been killed in the fire after saving his daughter, who had got trapped in a cupboard when the fire started.

On a recent press day, Amy opened up about filming the harrowing scenes, and admitted that filming those scenes had been the "most challenging" thing she's ever done in her career.

She explained how the cast had been watching the fire scenes, adding that you could feel the heat even from a way away. "Seeing the stunt double for Michael makes me want to cry now. We were all so sad to see him go, it's weird because we saw him lying dead on the ground and it's quite a harrowing thing to witness.

"It was an amazing day, it was really boiling hot and really intense and I loved it. Everyone was so supportive of me because I had so much screaming and crying to do, reacting to what happened. I just had to keep in the zone that day otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get through it.

"It's going to be an amazing episode. It's 100% the most challenged I've ever been in the show and professionally I think. I've done a lot of crying in my time in plays, and obviously I'm a girl so we cry a lot! But this is another extreme, she's absolutely broken after this and completely in turmoil. I absolutely love it and have loved every minute of it but it takes its toll physically."

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Emmerdale's Amy Walsh calls filming the factory fire her 'most challenging' career moment
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But when Amy heard that there was going to be a fire in the factory and that she'd be involved, she did worry that her days were numbered! "I think everyone was a bit worried, you don't know which way it's going to go, it could have gone that way.

"I think I was told quite early on that I was saved. It's been a bit of a weird one in that respect because everyone's so sad to see Michael go, but this is what the soap world is and we have to just remember that it could be any of us at any point and just enjoy it while you can whilst you're here."

Amy also explained that it's her on-screen sister Vanessa Woodfield, played by Michelle Hardwick, whose reaction is the hardest to take, "The only person who points blame to Tracey initially is Vanessa, she finds out why she was in that cupboard and why Frank was obviously there saving her and she reacts quite badly to it.

"I've really enjoyed how they've written Vanessa and Tracy, because I think it's so true to life how people - even as close as sisters - can deal with grief in different ways. You see Vanessa being quite stoic and hard and strong for the first time, and she's normally more soft with Charity for example, but she gets a real strength and she's quite awful to Tracy.

"When I first read it, I was like, 'As if she'd be like that to her poor little sister who's crying,' but she is in pain too and she's dealing with it in a different way. It's much more interesting to see how that plays out."

Emmerdale airs every weeknight at 7pm on ITV, with a second showing on Tuesday nights at 8pm.

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