Emmerdale star Mark Charnock has revealed that something “really cataclysmic” is going to happen in the live hour long episode of the soap, due to air tomorrow night, which will “change the lives of a lot of characters”.

The celebrations began for this epic occasion yesterday, and are set to continue on par with a rollercoaster throughout the week.

Fans already know that during this week long anniversary special two babies will be born, two couples will have weddings and one ‘well loved’ character will meet an untimely death at the hands of a murderer!

Mark, who plays Marlon Dingle in the popular show, has revealed a little more about what fans can expect during an exclusive interview with stv.tv.

“It is must-see. A lot of people watch live episodes to see what goes wrong, but the audience have been teased with such great stories now for so long I think the majority will be tuning in to see what [happens], they know something massive is going to happen in the live,” Mark said.

“Several massive things happen, but there’s something really cataclysmic that happens, and it’s going to change the lives of a lot of characters.”

Obviously a live episode is a huge deal in the normal world of the Great British soap, especially one with expectations as high as the Emmerdale live has got, with it already being dubbed an “astonishing piece of drama”, but whilst Mark confesses to feeling slightly nervous, he also said that he is raring to go:

“I’m nervous but I think it’s a good nerves, it’s like when you’re about to go on stage you’re nervous because you’re about to perform in front of a live audience – it just happens this audience is about 10 million people!

“I’ve always wanted to do live TV, proper live drama, and we’re ready do it. We’ve been ready for a long time, so you know you’re involved in something really special and it’s going to be one of those landmark pieces of TV. I can’t wait. We’re all a bit trepidatious but it’s going to be great.”

At the helm of this piece of TV history is legendary director Tony Prescott, who also directed the 50th anniversary live episode for Emmerdale’s ITV soap rivals, Coronation Street, in 2010 which saw the Street devastated by a tram crash.

Speaking of Prescott, Mark commented: “I’ve been working with Tony for a decade-and-a-half and he’s directed some of my biggest stories in the show, so I know what a great bloke he is. He’s my friend and he’s a guy all the cast trust implicitly. They couldn’t have picked a better guy, we love, him, and he’s such a calm influence, there’s no sense of panic.”

Meanwhile, Rik Makarem, who plays Nikhil Sharma in the award-winning soap, has teased about the return of some famous faces from the soaps past during this week’s 40th birthday celebrations.

Speaking exclusively to stv.tv, Makarem admitted: “We might see a couple of returning characters.”

“I’ll get my hands slapped if I reveal what might be happening. but I think people will be happy to see the cast line-up.”

Discussing the brilliance of the soap, Makarem went on:

“It’s much more modern and much more up to date with many different age groups I think. That’s the good thing about the show; it has a good balance between the serious storylines and the fun storylines.

“I think it connects with a lot of people and the good thing about our show is we don’t rely on any tricks, we don’t rely on big stunts, and we don’t rely on any kind of effects.

“They keep the faith with the characters, the storylines and the actors to play it. And I think that’s why it connects to people so much.”

On the live episode, and murder, he explained:

“It’s all a big, big secret, I know the cast and the crew when they found out the way the death storyline was going to play out everyone was really shocked and I think it’s going to add real spice and drama [to the show]. The stakes are very high, it’s very exciting.”

Don’t miss Emmerdale tonight at 7pm on ITV1/ITV1 HD (with the live hour long episode airing tomorrow night at 7pm!)