Emmerdale star left sobbing in car after unexpected soap axe – but was ‘ready’ to go
Former Emmerdale actress Katherine Dow Blyton has opened up on her pain at seeing her character Harriet Finch being killed off after nine years on the ITV soap
Katherine Dow Blyton has opened up on her torment at being axed from Emmerdale, revealing the news let her “crying in the car”.
The 59-year old played policewoman and vicar Harriet Finch in the Yorkshire soap between 2013 and 2022. Her exit came as a shock, however, something she has since slammed ITV bosses over for their handling of the sorry episode.
Harriet was killed off as part of the show’s 50th birthday celebrations in a dramatic scene that saw her quadbike crush her as she plunged down a ravine while she searched for Amelia Spencer. As if the role ending wasn’t already bad enough for Katherine, her character wasn’t even afforded a send-off – with no on-screen funeral forthcoming.
Discussing her pain, Katherine says she was told that because Harriet was “loved” she would be given a “good death” – as though she could take some sort of comfort from that.
She recalled to the Sun: “I did sit there for ten seconds thinking, have I done something wrong? They say don’t take it personally but it’s impossible not to. I was taken aback.
“I tried to get out of the building, sat in my car and burst into tears because it was a shock.” However, she admitted she had been ready to go for a while.
Katherine went on to suggest that she wasn’t happy with the direction her character taken in her final years anyway, adding that “something didn’t sit right” with her after Harriet covered up the murder of her ex, before suffering a break down and rejoining the police after quitting her job at the church.
“When Harriet came in she was such a fabulous character, she was a bit naughty, a bit off the wall, she had a sense of humour,” she said. “Going back to being a policewoman on the beat at my age was, I think, a bit left field.”
Addressing her exit on the Soap the Box podcast, meanwhile, grateful Katherine revealed: “I got so many lovely messages after Harriet died. People going she hasn’t even had a funeral, where’s her body? I just felt a bit sorry for Harriet, it is what it is.
“You have to suck it up and go, that’s showbiz! The irony is that was the first super soap week I’ve been involved with!”