Prick me with a pin and I will bleed camp soap women – anyone who has ever shared oxygen with me will know how much I adore the catty villains of the small-screen right through to the unhinged superbitches and sociopaths.
My campaign to bring Mad Maya back to Coronation Street will never end and I am still wistful for Lorraine Chase’s Emmerdale antics, from holding her dad hostage in his bed Misery-style to launching her best mate from a ferry.
I have very much been enjoying the arrival of Beth Cordingly’s Ruby Fox-Miligan – she has delicious one-liners, is completely selfish and has the classic soap baddie smirk down to a tee.
However, she is here to do one thing, and that’s to destroy the legendary Kim Tate – the undisputed queen of camp soap bad girls.
Claire King is a master of her craft and always has been, Kim has been spiteful, mostly conscience free, outrageous and enjoyed an unhealthy relationship with extreme revenge.
So, as much as I have loved meeting Ruby, I can’t possibly root for her toppling the Home Farm Hellion, because it shouldn’t be possible.
I have often written in preview articles about people who dare to cross Kim that she should be very afraid.
Taking her on used to be akin to signing your own death warrant but she hasn’t just softened in recent years, she has become a bit of a pushover.
When it was first announced that Kim was returning in 2018 after nearly two decades, it was everything fans had wished for.
It had pretty much been ruled out – Bad Girls and Coronation Street star Claire seemed to have put the character to bed when she flew off in a helicopter after a huge fraud scheme and a bonus club to her step-brother’s head with a paperweight.
Classic Kim.
She was on every soap fan’s to desired returns for years and her comeback was met with huge excitement, with it literally getting the whole UK talking, including coverage across the likes of BBC News.
She was certainly back with a vengeance, in her first few episodes, she had ripped into half the village, taken over Home Farm again, was thrown from a balcony into a champagne tower because she was being so loathsome and was then carted off to jail.
When she was later released, she was straight into vengeful acts of horror including leaving vulnerable folk homeless and hiring assassins.
As Claire recently told me, there was a fear this would become too much and that Kim could become tiresome and one-dimensional.
I absolutely agree, there’s no way that it was sustainable so it was important to build relationships for Kim and blend in her more human side, which we saw back in the 90s through her friendship with Seth Armstrong and her genuine love for Dave Glover.
For a while, the balance was pretty good. Kim toned down in some instances, was often bettered or calmed but when crossed, she would be unstoppable – she and husband Will went on to hide a buried body of a violent thug in a romantic start to a blossoming relationship.
But, a couple of years ago, everything changed a bit and she became worryingly unrecognisable.
Kim wasn’t just being nice. She was letting everyone get the better of her and humiliate her without consequence.
Discovering on her wedding day that Will’s ex Harriet had kissed her hubby-to-be and was hankering on him to dump Kim for her, the stage was set for an explosive showdown.
But it didn’t come. After a loose threat, the pair exchanged pleasantries at the wedding, with Harriet conceding defeat and Kim forgiving her and marrying Will with soppy vows.
Excuse me!? The Kim of old would have utterly destroyed Harriet without a second thought – and Will wouldn’t have fared much better.
In the same episode, a storm took hold and Harriet was missing, leading to Kim riding out into the deadly hurricanes to save her love rival.
Finding her next to a crashed quad bike, I genuinely thought Emmerdale was lining up a big twist and that the Kim of old would re-emerge and watch Harriet succumb to her fate, all the while checking in a hand-mirror that the resulting explosion hadn’t put her hair out of place.
But she almost got herself killed trying (and failing) to save Harriet before heading home and bursting into guilty tears.
Later, she had a bitter feud with her son Jamie’s wife Andrea but aside from a snide remark or two, she pretty much let her nemesis get away with far too much under her roof.
And now she has just stood by and watched Will’s ex Rose move in and even make pretty obvious indications that she wants to sleep with him.
Kim of old wouldn’t have let her even cross the threshold. And Rose wouldn’t have dared.
I miss Kim Tate. But my wishes might be about to come true as the character will soon learn of Rose’s scheming – and this time will actually do something about it.
In interviews I have asked Claire about whether evil Kim will be revisited and this time she was more definitive in her teasing. While also making it clear that it’s what she is yearning for too, adding that playing the villainous side is much more fun.
In upcoming scenes, Kim will take her revenge and it results in Rose disappearing. And, while it sounds pretty sadistic to say, I am all for Kim unleashing her full wrath.
It’s what she used to do and it’s what I am hoping she does too.
I have waited a long time for my favourite character of all time to re-discover who she truly is and the evil Kim drought may finally be over.
It’s about time and long may it last. All hail superbitch Kim Tate!
