‘I’m a big Emmerdale star but was so broke I turned to adult film – it nearly ruined me’
Emmerdale star Chris Chittell has played Eric Pollard for 38 years, becoming the longest-serving cast member – but before landing his ITV role he starred in Swedish porn flicks
Emmerdale legend Chris Chittell has been known better as his alias Eric Pollard for 38 years – but he didn’t get his start in soapland.
Instead, the veteran actor – who joined the cast in 1986 – actually started his career as a model before going on to make Swedish porn films like Sex in Sweden, Let Us Play Sex and Practice Makes Perfect. The actor had unsimulated sex on camera, performing plenty of XXX-rated acts when he was strapped for cash.
And afterwards, he fretted he’d be fired from his soap job if bosses found out. The star told The Sunday Mirror in 1997: “I did films like Let Us Play Sex and Swedish Sex Games when I was on my uppers after running up terrible bills and seeing various ventures fail. One was an antiques business. Another was a Jewish-Italian restaurant in Hatton Garden, London. I took them to pay off some heavy-duty people and clear the bills.”
He added: “I always thought I was going to be fired, even after years in Emmerdale. I thought I would never work in England again because of the content of those films. Thank God I’ve been on the up ever since.”
To get over his crippling anxiety, which led to panic attacks so severe he “couldn’t string two words together without rendering myself a gibbering idiot”, Chris turned to a faith healer and then a hypnotherapist, who he claims “fixed him” on their second attempt.
Chris continued to star in porn throughout the 1970s, a decade before he signed up to Emmerdale. His credits include Girl on Her Knees, Hungry Young Women and Erotic Inferno.
Some fans are only just discovering Chris’s raunchy past, and turned to X to share their thoughts. One joked: “Only found out today that Chris Chittell was a hardcore porn actor! Eric Poleshard!” Another quipped: “Eric Pollard you dirty dog!”
Others posted: “What a guy!” as another grumbled: “Don’t need that image, thank you…”
Thankfully his antics didn’t affect his soap career or his future romance with co-star Lesley Dunlop, who plays Brenda Walker in the ITV Dales. Chris split from his first wife Caroline Hunt in 2005 after originally tying the knot in 1979; in 2016, he married Lesley.
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Chris has two children, Rebecca and Ben, with his first wife. Now his Emmerdale character is embroiled in a messy storyline of his own – since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, Eric has gone back to the shady underworld of crime, cheating Kerry Wyatt out of cash with a stolen necklace and getting Victoria Sudgen fired from her job.
Eric has also been blackmailing Jai after Amit’s mysterious attack and disappearance… but how far will this new Eric go?
