Emmerdale Amy star Natalie Ann Jamieson on life after exit, leaving bash and Mark Charnock battle

A former ITV Emmerdale star has told us about life after the soap and opened up on that heartbreaking exit which had us all reaching for the tissues.

As Emmerdale diehards know, Natalie Ann Jamieson, 37, left the ITV show earlier this year. Her character Amy Wyatt being one of the three who d.i.e.d in the stunning limo crash scenes.

It saw the d.e.a.t.h.s of characters Leyla Harding, played by Roxy Shahidi, and Suzy Merton – portrayed by Martelle Edinborough. While all three fatalities were upsetting for fans, arguably, Amy’s was the least expected so truly packed a punch.

Particularly with her being a mum to Kyle and having a blossoming relationship with Matty Barton. A few weeks after her last scenes aired, Natalie Ann Jamieson, originally from Newcastle who has previously appeared in Vera and Doctors, chatted to us about life after Emmerdale.

The star started playing Emmerdale’s Amy in 2019. She’s told us about what is next in her career, some touching tributes and gifts from former co-stars, her love of Newcastle United and…her firm desire to beat Mark Charnock in the Emmerdale fantasy football league.

How have things been since you exited Emmerdale?

“It has been good. It has been quite nice having a bit of chill time as it was six years that I was at Emmerdale. I’ve been in Leeds (living) the whole time but this (period) has been more chilled and getting to do a lot more stuff. It has been quite nice as we’ve had some nice weather and lots of things go on.

“I’ve just had a little holiday to Sicily. So, it has been very nice having some chill time and downtime.”

To be involved in such a major exit storyline it must have been quite the compliment to you and the character of Amy?

“It was amazing. To have a character that’s so big in the show, that you get a massive exit like that, it is lovely. It is a massive compliment.

“It is nice because you know all the audience love the character and the reason that you are getting a big shock story is because they want the audience to be going ‘noooooo!’ and ‘we never thought that was going to happen’.

“So, to get something like that it’s a big privilege – especially in soapland. Because there’s lots of ways people come and go. When you do get one of the big ones, It does feel really special.

“All the stuff that I had to do (in terms of stunts) that was stuff I’d never done before so I was excited and nervous about doing all that stuff. It looked amazing when it came out – I was really pleased with them.

“It was really sad obviously to see the back of the character but watching everything we had achieved, and the plan come together, and seeing everybody’s reactions it was amazing. I don’t think many people get to experience something like that. I thought it was brilliant.”

There must have been some cold, late Yorkshire nights filming those scenes?

“It was in December. Leeds in December, it was freezing. It has its own atmosphere (at the village), it is its own wind tunnel, it is freezing and you often get several seasons in one day there. It was cold.

“It was about 2am in the morning when I was dumped in the water. I wouldn’t do that for fun…”

For many, Amy’s d.e.a.t.h was a major shock, particularly as we thought we’d be following her adoption journey with Matty. How did you find the reactions from the fans?

“I was getting so many messages. I think I had thousands of messages from people who really wanted to see that story play out about the adoption and obviously people love Amy and Matty together. They had their marriage, he went to prison for a bit, as you do, in all good soap stories, and I think people were expecting that this bit was going to be the happy bit.

“As that is often how this bit plays out. So, for it to go straight into that (Amy’s d.e.a.t.h) I think it was a big shock for people. I went and did a village tour, a few weeks after it aired, and everybody was saying ‘no, we really wanted Amy to stay’ and watch that storyline.

“I think it is a lovely storyline the Amy and Matty one. It would have been nice to see them have a little bit of happiness for a bit before that all happened…but you got a week’s worth of it.”

How was your leaving party?

“I had a lovely leaving bash. We went into town, there were a couple of us leaving at that point so we did a group one. Ash (Palmisciano who plays Matty) did a big speech for me and made me a book with a load of photos full of Amy Wyatt.

“It says ‘the legend that is Amy Wyatt’ and it is full of photos. They got me a bracelet and its got inscribed in it ‘love, the village’. I got lots of cute things from them.

“The party was very good fun. We got very drunk.”

Did you have to have a social media ban given the character d.e.a.t.h.s were secrets?

“When we are doing our leaving parties we are still trying to keep them secret. As we do our parties before it (the exit scene) airs quite often. So, there was a couple of balloons that had the names of people going on so we had to be careful that they weren’t in anybody’s photos.”

Have you taken any memorabilia to commemorate your time on Emmerdale?

“I’ve got some Amy Wyatt Dr Martens (boots). I’ve got some weird things. We have these cover coats that we wear and on the back of them we have got our names. So, we always wear the same coat.

“They are only on there with Velcro actually so when people go they can just rip them off and put somebody’s else name on – that’s showbiz. So, I’ve got my Velcro name.

“I don’t know if it has been on-screen yet but I think there’s something coming up on-screen soon that I can tell you about afterwards. But it was from after I left, Ash (Palmisciano) nicked it for me. I’ve still got people there thieving things for me.”

How are you feeling about the future and this next stage in your career?

“I’ve got a couple of little theatre bits coming up. Some local and regional theatre stuff which I love doing. I’d really like to go into a sitcom or something like that. A lot more comedy.

“I didn’t get as much of that in Emmerdale. So, something like that would be really nice. I used to do a bit more comedy before that role. I’d love to do a sitcom or maybe something like that.

“Everything. I find it really hard to choose as I just like doing everything. I guess I can say I’ve ticked off soap so all of the other genres. Horror would be amazing. Just things that are different to what I’ve done for the last six years. Although, if another role like that came up I wouldn’t be sad as I had an amazing time. I’m just excited to be able to do everything and anything.

“Radio is fun. There’s so many fun things to do that I just haven’t been a part of for a little while. So, sign me up for everything.”

And, of course, you are a massive Newcastle United fan. How did it feel to see your club end its 70-year trophy drought when they won the Carabao Cup in March?

“So good. I went up to Newcastle for the parade, it was amazing. It was full of 300,000 Geordies. That was really good then we had lots of wins and then that terrible match (a 4-1 loss to Aston Villa) which we are going to pretend hasn’t happened and carry on with the good vibes.

“Also, Leeds are coming back up. We went to watch that at the weekend with all the Leeds fans and that was brilliant.”

What did winning that trophy mean to Newcastle?

“It is amazing. I think you get a lot of people that can be a bit funny about football and they don’t understand it. When you see a one-team city, like Newcastle, and you see all those people out on the streets and the celebrations all-day long you sense people kind of go ‘I can see why people get so excited about football’.

“It brings communities together and people go out and have a big party. A bit like people would do if they were in their local church, I guess, at Easter or Christmas. If your team wins the cup, you are well out having a big party together.

“A bit like Pride, everybody comes together for Pride. I love any day like that. Things like that get people in the street and getting everybody together – you just have to get behind it.”

Did you enjoy much football banter on-set at Emmerdale?

“We have got great rivalries there. I’m still in a fantasy football league with a lot of Emmerdale people. I think I’m above Mark Charnock (who plays soap great Marlon Dingle) at the minute. Me and him are always very close, I’m planning on beating him this year.

“He’s a Man United fan and Jeff (Hordley who plays Cain) is a (Manchester) City fan. So, they have got a bit of a rivalry going on and then Kevin (Mathurin who plays Charles) is a West Ham fan, the same as my partner, he’s not doing as well in the league. We forget about that…”

Going forward, what is your dream role?

“I always think my dream role would be something like Jennifer Saunders in Ab Fab. Something like that, you’d just have the best time filming it. I also think something filmed aboard like The White Lotus.

“Something like that would be cool as you’d be filming in somewhere like Thailand for six months. Could you imagine? So yeah, Ab Fab at the White Lotus…I think that’s essentially Benidorm though.”

What were some of your major highlights from your Emmerdale time?

“I got to do so many things when I was there. Not even just filming but we went to the Houses of Parliament on a couple of occasions for different things. Doing things like that I always thought was amazing. We’d be there on behalf of ITV and the channel talking to politicians but then I could just chat away to them about anything. I didn’t just have to talk about ITV.

“Then I’d be to myself ‘somebody has just let me into the Houses of Parliament.”

Was it special to an ambassador for Emmerdale and ITV?

“I used to love doing all the things where I got to be an ambassador for the show. We had lots of different things where I got to do that. And, also the other opportunities I got like going on Mastermind and raising money for (charity) Cure Usher. It is all linked to being on Emmerdale in the first place.

“There were so many opportunities because of that. I did the big quiz – the Emmerdale versus Corrie one. I loved doing all that kind of stuff. They were all highlights for me.

“Then just coming to work everyday with the same cast and crew, you don’t get to do that all that often in this industry, so I think I was really lucky to do that and they are a particularly nice bunch.”

And, what have been your favourite storylines from your time in the soap?

“She (Amy) got so many good ones. Other than the last one, I think my favourite one was when Kyle shot Alf. I loved working on that one as Huey (Quinn who plays Kyle) was so fab.

“I have a photo of him in that book when he was tiny when he first started. He was just doing the odd word when I started and then all of a sudden he was at the centre of a massive storyline.”

How was it to see a child star like Huey grow up working alongside him?

“It is really special. They are lovely kids (the Emmerdale child stars) and they are brilliant at what they do. Even when they are little, you can see if they are interested in it or not. You can kind of tell. He (Huey) was always really interested in what was going on behind the camera and working it all out. You could just see the cogs going.

“Going from that to smashing out a storyline you are going ‘how did that just happen?’. Watching stuff like that is really special. As there wouldn’t be any other part of our industry where you get to go on that ride with somebody. That was brilliant.”

Was there a sense of collective support leaving alongside Roxy Shahidi and Martelle Edinborough? With their characters also dying in the limo stunt scenes.

“Because we were going in exactly the same kind of thing and filming it together – a lot of people don’t get that. Even if they are going at similar times. They would film different sections.

“So, it was really nice to have everyone around when we were filming that stuff. It was late at night, 2am in the morning, we were being dumped in cold water and covered in blood – it was quite exciting.

“So, to have people around who are going through exactly the same thing as you it was quite emotional at times and we all got to share it together and that was actually very special. If you were doing it by yourself, you might feel a bit sad that everybody else was having a different experience to you.

“Whereas, we were all in it together so it was really nice.”

And, you never know, this is soapland. There’s always potential for you to return to Emmerdale as a ghost or in a flashback further down the line?

“No doubt. There’s a little Dingle child there (Kyle) I’m sure he’ll get up to all sorts and there will be ghosts popping up left, right and centre for him.”