Soap actor Denise Welch has said she feels ‘honoured’ to play a part in the final chapter of Tom King’s (James Chase) storyline.
On Thursday, Tom will stand trial after abusing and coercively controlling wife Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) for over a year.
With Belle having found the strength to report him to the police, Tom’s downfall has been ‘sealed’ in an hour-long special that will highlight the real-life voices of domestic abuse victims and survivors.
Long-serving Loose Women panellist Denise will be ticking the last box on her soap bucket list when she takes on the role of a jury member. The actress, 66, is best remembered in soapland for playing feisty Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street for three years in the late 90s.
She’s also starred as Trish Minniver in Hollyoaks, Alison Slater in EastEnders, and Steph Haydock in Waterloo Road – a part she will reprise in an upcoming series due to air next year.
Denise, who has now starred in all four main soaps, recently reflected on her role in the upcoming episode.
She said: ‘I thoroughly enjoyed shooting this important episode of Emmerdale. Like many I’ve been gripped by the Belle and Tom storyline so to play a head juror in the story’s culmination was an honour.
‘Parts of the script were taken from real life cases and the charity Refuge were involved in the research. My character Heidi was more emotionally involved so I felt that maybe she had experienced some form of domestic abuse herself.’
Denise continued: ‘At Loose Women (wearing my other hat) we launched our Facing it Together campaign this year which has been hugely successful in shining a light on all sorts of abuse including of course coercive control so the subject matter is one I’m passionate about.
‘To share the jury scenes with Charlie Dale and Jack Ellis and also to see lots of my Emmerdale mates made it a job to remember’.
Charles, best known for his role as Big Mac in Casualty for almost a decade, will play Karl.
He will be reuniting with his former Corrie co-star Denise, with the two crossing paths when he portrayed Janice Battersby’s (Vicky Entwistle) boyfriend Dennis Stringer towards the end of her stint.
Joining them is Bad Girls actor Jack Ellis, who played villainous prison officer Jim Fenner for much of its run.
He’s also part of the Street alumni, having played bookmaker Harry Mason in the soap between 2007-08.
On the episode announcement, Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw said: ‘When we first embarked on this journey we knew we wanted to show domestic abuse, coercive control and manipulation in all its guises.
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‘The privilege we have on a drama such as Emmerdale is being able to show the reality of a situation like Belle’s over a longer period of time to authentically reflect what so many people go through in real life on a daily basis.’
‘We knew from the outset that Belle would need some sort of closure on Tom and we know our Emmerdale audience always look forward to our villains getting their comeuppance,’ she said.
‘We don’t want to spoil the outcome of this story and reveal what will happen to Tom, but needless to say, Belle’s going to be in a much better place by this Christmas.’
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