Lisa Riley has shared her pride of Emmerdale co-star Eden Taylor-Draper for her portrayal of Belle Dingle in the soap’s ‘horrific’ coercive control storyline.
Fans of the ITV soap have watched on in horror in recent months as Tom King (James Chase) has abused wife Belle in harrowing scenes.
Lisa, who plays Belle’s on-screen aunt Mandy Dingle, has said she has felt like Eden’s real-life aunt after watching her set, and called for her to win scores of awards for her performance.
Speaking to OK! magazine ahead of Mandy’s second wedding to ex-husband Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) next week, Lisa said: ‘We’ve just had Belle and Tom’s wedding, which is very different from Paddy and Mandy’s. As a show, it’s incredible that we’ve taken a wedding with Belle and Tom that should be glorious but as it’s played out since then, it’s been horrific, and it’s only getting worse.
‘I’m the proudest aunt to Eden, I get emotional about it.’
Lisa recalled filming a recent episode, which focused on Belle and Tom throwing a dinner party with other couples from the village, with Tom’s abuse continuing in the private moments away from their guests.
‘I spoke with Eden, and those days were hard for her,’ she revealed. ‘After day two of filming the dinner party, we went back to the dressing room and I gave her a hug and said “do you have any idea how proud I am of you?” She’s just incredible, I love her.’
Lisa continued: ‘Eden deals with it brilliantly too, and it’s hard, long days playing that emotion. We’re all messing around on set and she has to stay quiet in the corner. I want her to win everything, and I will be her biggest cheerleader.’
Recent weeks have seen Belle come to the realisation Tom is controlling her and attempt to escape from him.
Actor James Chase, who plays Tom, recently spoke of his hopes for Tom to get his comeuppance, saying: ‘It’s what he deserves. He can’t get away with it.
‘I don’t know to what extent that would be, or how the storyline would end but I would think it would have to be something like that because she needs justice for what’s happened to her,’ he went on.
‘The viewer needs that, for all the hell we’ve seen Belle get put through we have to see her win in the end, or at the very least for him to lose.’
On what he thinks the outcome should be, James added: ‘I think definitely at least prison. There needs to be at least that. I don’t really know. They’re all interesting.’
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
