Emmerdale star Charlotte Bellamy, who plays Laurel Thomas on the soap, has shared the story idea she pitched that was turned down by the writers.
Talking to Inside Soap, Charlotte revealed that the only story idea she pitched to Emmerdale was about all of the women who worked at the factory becoming addicted to gambling.
She said: "The only story I've ever tried to pitch to the writers was years ago, when we were all working in the factory. I pitched a story about a group of women becoming addicted to gambling, which is actually really common.
"I thought as a collective of women desperate to make a living that would be quite interesting."
The soap star added that "it's all about the timing" when it comes to storyline ideas.
"It never got through, but as actors we don't see the bigger picture, and what other stories are going on. It's all about the timing," she shared.
Sharma & Sharma was a chocolate factory owned by Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) that was built in 2009 and many unemployed villagers went to work at Sharma's sweet factory after Eric Pollard's (Chris Chittell) had to close his down in 2008 due to financial struggles.
Laurel worked alongside many Emmerdale women at the factory including Dawn Taylor (Olivia Bromley), Nicola King (Nicola Wheeler), Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) and Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins).
The business was part of the huge factory fire storyline in 2019, which saw it get set alight by Kerry Wyatt (Laura Norton) and her daughter Amy (Natalie Ann Jamieson).
During the Wild West Murder Mystery Fundraiser for the local hospital, factory employee Kerry broke into the safe to steal money to help Amy pay-off a dodgy associate from when she lived in Belfast.
But as they tried to destroy the CCTV footage of Kerry nicking the money, the pair accidentally started the fire which destroyed the factory and killed villager Frank Clayton (Michael Praed).
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7.30 pm on ITV1, with a hour-long episode on Thursdays — see our TV Guide for full listings. You can also catch up on ITVX.
