Soaps
Katie returned to the village last week. Where had she been?
"She's been with her mum in Greece for two weeks apparently. There's not actually been much mention of it, but that's where she's been."
When she returned, she had to deal with the aftermath of Grayson Sinclair, didn't she?
"Yeah. He'd phoned around all the people who had their horses stabled with Katie to sabotage her business and ruin her reputation. She came back and all the horses had disappeared."
And this week, Katie walks into a hostage situation – how does it come about?
"Katie's at the village fayre giving horse rides to the kids, but Chas says to her something like 'none of the kids want to ride on the horses, they just want to go on the donkeys, so you may as well go back and get changed'. So Katie goes back to Home Farm to stable the horses and get changed. When I walk in, I find Matthew being held hostage by a madman with a gun, which was the last thing she was expecting."
What does the madman want?
"Without giving too much away, he wants to know where someone precious to him is - and he wants to know, whether it means harming Katie or Matthew in the process."
Does the gun go off?
"Yeah. It goes off after Carl and Jimmy arrive because they become embroiled in it all, too. Carl confronts the madman and then the gun goes off after a bit of a struggle."
What was it like having the barrel of a gun pointed at you?
"It was actually a real gun but it didn't have any ammunition in it. It's a horrible feeling having it pointed at your head. It's quite bad holding it, too. I had to hold it at one point because there's a struggle in one scene and the gun's dropped and Katie gets it, which is ridiculous really because the gun's twice the size of me! It's strange holding it, but it gave me the taste for it. I really wanted to go for shooting lessons afterwards. I haven't done yet, but want to."
Did you have any lessons on how to hold the gun or anything?
"Yeah. There was an expert there who owned the gun. I didn't realise that there are two triggers on the gun because there are two barrels – you use the first trigger for the first shot and the second trigger, which is further back, for the second shot. The guy was saying 'Sammy, the first shot's already gone off, you've got to hold the second trigger otherwise you'll look stupid' and I said 'alright, calm down – I've not actually done this before!' He understood, but just wanted to get it right. He said 'Katie's meant to be a farmer girl and you should have done it before!'
Do you think Katie does or will regret giving up her baby to Perdy Hyde-Sinclair?
"I think she'll always have a bit of regret. However, she knows that that baby's with the best possible person. I think that's what keeps her going, really."
