'Emmerdale's Dominic Brunt is regularly bombarded with inappropriate "sex letters" from saucy grandmothers.

Dominic Brunt

Dominic Brunt

The 45-year-old actor, who is known for playing gentle vet Paddy Kirk in the ITV soap, is often left open-mouthed when he reads mail from his besotted fans - usually penned by old aged pensioners - claiming they have sexual fantasies about him and would love to get jiggy with him in the bedroom.

He said: "These days you're more likely to get comments on Twitter but I get a lot of rude letters, too. They're probably similar to the kind Alan Titchmarsh gets - Paddy is very safe and kind so they think, 'I know, I'll project my sexual fantasies on to him'. I'd get sex letters from 60-year-olds, saying 'I've had rumblings I've not had for 30 years' and telling me what they want to do to me. It's hilarious."

But, apart from the awkward letters, Dominic - who lives in West Yorkshire with his wife Joanne and their two children - usually goes unnoticed when he carries out his daily tasks.

He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I wear a hat and then I don't get recognised because I'm very shy so I do feel uncomfortable being approached sometimes ...

"It's a tricky one - viewers invite you into their house for 19 years so if you say no to a photo it can be seen as churlish so I always try and say yes even though I might feel embarrassed. But where I live I seem to get left alone most of the time and that's fine with me."