The unthinkable has happened at Emmerdale’s Home Farm, with Kim Tate (Claire King) having to move out to the B&B after being falsely accused of spiking step-daughter Dawn Fletcher (Olivia Bromley)’s drink.
As well as being hard for Kim to deal with, Claire King told us that she hopes the change is only temporary, as she loves working with the rest of her Home Farm family.
‘I think there’ll probably be a bit of War of the Roses going on,’ she said of the current turmoil between herself and the rest of the family.
‘Which could be good for us to have a bit of that sparring. But we like working together anyway, as actors, so you can get into your own little families. And you know how each other works and you know the systems and we enjoy that. We’ve got a good little team at Home Farm so we’d like to keep that together.
Viewers have seen a softer side of Kim recently as she’s become close to Dawn, Billy Fletcher (Jay Kontzle) and their children. This is why she initially lied to cover for Billy when he lapsed in the social distancing rules put in place to protect baby Evan – because she feared for his and Dawn’s relationship if the truth came out.
Claire likes this new side to Kim, she told us.
‘It’s been lovely to do because for a time, it was all hard, hard, hard and knock-backs and put downs and one liners and bitchy and sniping and revenge – which is great and it’s more fun to play, really. But you do have to have a balance otherwise the character can get a bit stale and a bit one dimensional. I know she’s got quite a few dimensions to her now so it’s it is a lot better, but it’s been good to have that other side to it.
‘Obviously Dawn isn’t happy with Kim at the moment because she thinks Kim was the one that spiked her drink but she’d covered for Billy getting drunk and all the rest of it,’ Claire explained. ‘So she is being a good girl, Kim. She could have been honest. They will make up and I think she does see Dawn as a daughter and does try and protect her. And obviously she’s got close to her step grandkids.’
Another relationship that’s hugely important to Kim is with her biological grandchild Thomas, and of course with his mum Gabby (Rosie Bentham). The two have moved out of Home Farm to help protect Evan, but Claire told us that Kim feels the loss of them very badly.
‘Oh, she’s gutted about that because obviously he’s her true grandson. And she’s very close to Gabby, she does see her as a daughter, but realises this is for Evan’s sake. Like everything else that’s going on.’
It also means that Claire hasn’t had any scenes with Rosie Bentham recently. ‘I haven’t seen Rosie, apart from in the dressing room just now, for months!’ she said.
So Kim is currently unaware of the fledgling romance brewing between Gabby and Vinny Dingle (Bradley Johnson).
‘I have no idea, and Kim has no idea, what’s going on with Vinny but I’m sure she’ll be happy for them… eventually!’ Claire laughed. ‘But yeah, a Dingle isn’t the best match…’
Claire has enjoyed the fact that the storyline about Evan’s leukaemia has allowed for some deep emotional scenes and she likes the contrast between that and Kim’s ‘camp and drama.’
‘That’s one thing we always have in Home Farm, we have that balance. So we can have all the the camp and drama going on but there’s also underlying stories that are quite serious and heartbreaking as well. We’re hoping, obviously, this has a good happy ending. Who knows in soap? But we’re hopeful.’
