Emmerdale’s James Hooton almost quit the soap after bosses told him there was ‘f*** all chance’ he would get a major storyline

EMMERDALE star James Hooton has said he almost quit the soap after bosses rejected his plea for bigger storylines.

The actor - who plays Sam Dingle in the ITV soap - was left frustrated with his character being sidelined and when he approached bosses to ask for a juicier storyline he was bluntly knocked back leading to him hating his job and wanting to quit.

He told The Sunday People: "The character I play went through a very lean period and it got to the stage I started to dislike my job.

"I didn't have much to do. I was young and ambitious and I wanted to do more work.

"I asked if there was a chance to get involved in more stories. To put it bluntly, I was told 'Is there f***.' It left me in no doubt I was not going to be a character who drove stories in the show.

"I hated my job for a while. I had a lot of things to work out in my brain.

"My choice was to search elsewhere for more work and challenges or to find ways of making my working life easier."

But after careful reflection James opted to remain with the show and its regular pay cheque, a rarity for acting jobs, but decided to reassess his thinking about his job.

He said: "I decided to stay with the show and take work home as little as possible."

The actor's character has more recently been at the sidelines of some major storylines with his girlfriend Lydia Heart being revealed to have been the mystery 15-year-old mother who had given birth and buried her baby in the grounds of the school.

* Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV

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