Emmerdale star Christopher Coghill has revealed he was once hit over the head with a handbag by a fan.
The actor, who plays Kev Barton in the ITV soap, opened up about the strange incident while discussing how viewers react to soap villains in real life.
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Coghill previously played paedophile Tony King in EastEnders in 2008. He said he was warned that viewers might struggle to separate his characters from his real-life personality.
He said: “You've got to give people a bit of credit."
“When I started in EastEnders, there were people who were like, ‘You know, there are people out there who really can't tell the difference between what they see on telly and real life, and because of the character you're playing, you're going to get a lot of shit, and you might need police protection’."
“And then you go out, and people go, ‘Oh, you're brilliant in EastEnders’, and that was kind of it."
“I did get hit over the head with a handbag in Selfridges, but apart from that.”
Coghill's current Emmerdale character Kev is also involved in a dramatic storyline.
He described Kev as a “sympathetic psychopath” and said he is not worried about being typecast as a villain.
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The actor is currently appearing alongside William Ash, who plays Caleb Miligan. Ash said he has also had some unusual reactions from viewers, although he believes most fans are friendly.
He recalled one woman approaching him at a petrol station and telling him: “Oh, you're right horrible to Moira.”
The pair have worked together several times before. They previously appeared in the 2003 drama Burn It and played brothers in the 2006 comedy Magnolia. They also appeared together in an episode of Moving On in 2016.
Their characters are now at the centre of a storyline involving an assault on Billy Fletcher, played by Jay Kontzle.
Kev is responsible for the attack, while Caleb has CCTV footage of what happened.
However, Caleb has been keeping the footage hidden as he hopes to blame the attack on his rival Joe Tate, played by Ned Porteous.
Coghill joked about how bad the footage looks for his character.
“I hold my hands up, it does look bad – I am bent over him with a crowbar and he's in a pool of blood,” he said.
Ash also admitted that Caleb and his wife Ruby, played by Beth Cordingly, are struggling to deal with Kev.
“I think Caleb and wife Ruby just don't know how to handle him, like most people in the village,” he said.
“It's like he's such a loose cannon. You just don't know what you're going to get from him.”
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Coghill also revealed that he is hoping to avoid any more singing scenes on the soap.
His character recently serenaded estranged husband Robert, played by Ryan Hawley, with Daniel Bedingfield's If You're Not The One.
He later tried to express his feelings to his long-lost son Lewis, played by Bradley Riches, by singing Boyzone's Father And Son.
Coghill said producer Laura Shaw had even suggested he perform Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You.
He joked: “If you keep me till Christmas 2029, I'll do it then.”
He added: “But no, it's excruciating. Horrible."
“If I could sing, I wouldn't be an actor. If I could sing, I would have been in a band in the 1990s.”
