Laura Norton practiced beating up Mark Jordon at home to prepare for their ‘Emmerdale’ scenes.
The 35-year-old actress – who plays Kerry Wyatt in the ITV soap – and the 53-year-old star (Daz Spencer) are dating in real life, so they used some of their time off at home to rehearse a forthcoming scene whereby Kerry attacks Daz, but the pair couldn’t get through the practice session without laughing.
She said: "We did practice. The night before I was a bit nervous about it. It was a bit weird.
"I took the stage directions literally just for safety. So you go, right we’re up against a wall, I can do that, I know what I’m doing with it.
"So he said, ‘Right, practice on me.’ And I couldn’t stop laughing. So we didn’t get to do it once without laughing."
Laura admits she and Mark were "really excited" about their latest storyline, which has seen Daz’s daughter Amelia Spencer (Daisy Campbell) go missing from the village, because they knew there would be plenty of audience engagement.
She said: "I used to love opening my scripts because it was always a surprise.
"But we actually got called in for a meeting about this. We were all really excited, which is not the right word to use about a child abduction, but because it is so meaty that the audience would jump on it."
Laura and Mark have been together for three years, and the former ‘A Wake in Providence’ star admits they are having a "lush" time as a couple.
Speaking on ‘Loose Women’, she added: "We’ve just had our anniversary. It’s just lush. It sounds a bit corny, but it is.
"It’s out there now."