Emmerdale is currently exploring uncharted waters in a controversial storyline that has seen Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) go to extreme lengths to keep the baby she firmly believes to be hers.
Baby Ivy was born after her father, Gus Malcolms (Alan McKenna), fraudulently used a frozen embryo that had been stored years ago when he was married to Rhona. As the law stands, even though Rhona is genetically the baby’s mother she has no legal rights over the child as she didn’t give birth to her.
Rhona has felt a primal bond with the baby ever since she was born and when she ended up looking after the child when Gus couldn’t cope, her love for the baby overwhelmed her. When it seemed she was about to lose Ivy, Rhona fled with the child and hid out – leading to her being charged with kidnap.
Emmerdale has played out this storyline over several months, showing how complicated and emotional the situation has been for everyone concerned.
Zoe Henry told us that ‘There are no winners at the end of the day, when you’re in a situation like that,’ and said she’s enjoyed playing out the complexities of the situation.
‘There’s so many sides you can come at it from,’ she pointed out. ‘It’s controversial and people are enjoying the fact you could be on anybody’s side on any given day, you know?’
The actress, who has been in Emmerdale since 2010 (having first appeared in 2001), thought that viewers’ sympathies wouldn’t necessarily be with Rhona just because she was a long-standing character.
‘I think people swing from scene to scene from episode to episode, and that’s a testament to the writers really, and how they’ve created this journey that we’ve all been on and are still on,’ she said. ‘I don’t think Rhona gets any special treatment in this situation for having been in it as long as I have. I just think it’s a moral dilemma. People are intrigued and confused and engaged with it.’
For the actors who’ve had to work through all of these emotional scenes, it’s been hard work but rewarding, according to Zoe.
‘It’s exhausting. I will say that,’ she agreed.
‘But I think we’re all pretty good at leaving work at work and snapping it off, I think that’s really important, particularly when soap is so quick and there’s so much.
‘You shoot a lot of content in a day. It can be quite draining, but it’s always a joy as well. I think we all feel very fortunate to be telling this story, because I think we’re al really invested in it. So, yeah, it’s exhausting, but it’s what we get paid for, right?’
Something else that helps the working day go by nicely for the actors is the presence of the two babies who have been playing Ivy in this story. In fact they enjoy working with the babies so much that Zoe told us it can get ‘territorial.’
‘We’ve had two little babies, and they’re both an utter delight,’ she said. ‘And we all get a bit territorial. I’ll be like, “Alan, you’ve been hogging that baby. Can you hand her over, please?” Yeah, there’s a lot of that that goes on. They’re absolutely dreamy, both of them.
‘It’s the best! Honestly, [playing a vet] I get animals and babies. I just have the best job.’
