Emmerdale is to air some really heartbreaking scenes tonight as Chas Dingle goes for her pregnancy scan.

The landlady will head off for her ultrasound scan alone only to discover that her baby has a rare foetal defect. In the hope that she has been misdiagnosed, Chas decides to not to tell partner Paddy about the scan. She had gotten her dates wrong so he couldn't attend the checkup with her. Dominic Brunt, who plays Paddy, said today that the storyline was about to get very emotional and that it reminded him of a "horrific" time in his own life. Speaking on This Morning, he said:

"My son had to go through major heart surgery at eight months old. He’s absolutely fine now. At the time it’s the most horrific thing to have to go through as a parent. "He has check-ups once a year for the rest of his life, but thankfully Leeds Royal Infirmary were great and the children’s heart surgery fund have been great. "They carry you through as parents because you don’t know what you’re doing and you’ve no parachute – you’re just giving this information which knocks you sideways and you have to go through it. It’s horrific at the time."

  The actor then said that he didn't want to spoil the storyline for viewers, but that the complications are due to his character's and Chas's ages. He said:

"It’s a rare defect that happens in the womb. And I don’t want to go too much into it so I don’t spoil the story for anyone, but it kind of holds a mirror up to that. "It’s because they’re parents of a certain age, and then with the complication that’s come up, it’s finding out all the different facets and angles of these things."

Brunt went on to address fan theories that the soap was taking a pro-choice or pro-life stance with the storyline. "It’s quite strange on Twitter, people go “this is pro-life” or “this is pro-choice," he said. "It’s not. We’re putting a situation in and we’re delicately finding out all the different ways of working it in." These scenes will air tonight at 7pm on ITV.