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Emmerdale star Jeff Hordley, who plays Cain Dingle, has spoken candidly about his demanding workload amid a gripping new storyline.

In recent episodes, Cain has received a diagnosis of aggressive yet localised prostate cancer and is facing surgery, something he is finding deeply difficult to come to terms with.

Speaking about the hard-hitting plotline at a recent Emmerdale press event, which included the Daily Express, Jeff, 56, admitted that filming the scenes had proved to be a 'challenge'.

He said: "It's been a challenge. A brilliant challenge. But the one thing that's so interesting to explore... because the guy is really having to face something that he's never faced before, so therefore his guard is down on a lot of things. He's unknowingly tapping into emotions that I don't think he knew he had.

"I think this is why they probably chose the character for this storyline. He's the classic man who doesn't say anything. He doesn't tell people. So by having this illness, this is what we're exploring and finding out with the character, so it's really interesting.", reports the Daily Star.

"But the workload has been the biggest challenge. Just because of the way we're telling stories now is very different. Since December it's been the most... it's just a massive roller coaster."

Jeff went on to say: "Since the beginning of December, I've been fully immersed in this. I kind of said to Zoe [Henry, who plays Rhona Goskirk and has been married to Jeff since 2003] this morning, 'Have I been THAT busy?' She said 'yeah!'

"It's just like, weekends, days off - because we get a second Friday off now - it's just I've got to work every day. So it's been a real challenge. It's starting to peter off a little bit now and get to what a normal schedule is.

"But the bottom line is, it's been great and I've got the best wing lady. Sometimes it's like 'how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time'.

"But when you've got someone like Natalie [Robb, who plays Cain's wife Moira Dingle] next to you, it's a breeze and we really have an understanding.

"Sometimes I've been coming into work thinking 'I'm quite overwhelmed by the day'. But by the end of the day, I'm skipping out of work because we've just had so much fun even though the story is very heavy."

Beyond the popular ITV soap, Jeff and Zoe have been married since 2003 and share two children together - Violet and Stan.

Emmerdale continues on weeknights at 8pm on ITV and ITV X.