ITV Emmerdale star hits out over shock soap exit as she tells bosses what they’re doing wrong
Emmerdale star Katherine Dow Blyton, who played Harriet Finch on the ITV soap until her character's shock death in Super Soap Week, has hit out at the soap's bosses
An Emmerdale star has hit out at the soap’s bosses – and warned them to make urgent changes.
Katherine Dow Blyton, who played Harriet Finch on the ITV soap until her character’s shock death in Super Soap Week, has opened up about her experience on the soap and shared her thoughts on the ITV programme which she was in for 10 years. Katherine questioned why the focus must always be on “conflict, murder and affairs” and less on characters as before.
She said: “I got so many lovely messages after Harriet died. People going she hasn’t even had a funeral, where’s her body? I just felt a bit sorry for Harriet, it is what it is. You have to suck it up and go, that’s showbiz!”
Harriet died in shocking scenes a few years back (
ITV)
“I think the problem is everything seems to be very sensational now, when you watch the old episodes, it was very much character-based. You just think why has everything got to be conflict, murder, affairs?” she told the Soap From The Box podcast.
She added: “You can have a character that’s single or a happily married couple. I don’t know whether soaps are a victim of their own success because there is a limit, when you’re doing six episodes a week, what do you do to keep people interested? It just seems more of a competition between soaps to do the best stunts and the best trauma and tragedies rather than characters.”
Katherine explained she had “burst into tears” when she learned she was leaving, but felt it was right in the end. She added: “I tried to get out of the building, sat in my car and burst into tears because it was a shock. I had been ready to go for a while, to be fair, but to make the decision to leave a good job is a big decision and I’m glad they made it because I wouldn’t have been brave enough.”
She had also previously admitted it was “emotional” reading her final scenes. Asked what it was like filming her death scenes, she said: “I got very emotional reading it. On the actual day I was covered in blood and I had various bits of woodland hanging out of my hair. We had these industrial wind machines which were literally blowing sand and debris into your eyes. So when it came to it, it wasn’t as emotional because the technicality of what you have to do takes away from the emotion so I managed to get through the day without sobbing. The death wasn’t my last scene though but on my last day I received flowers and lovely gifts and messages. I don’t think it will hit me that I’m not going back for a couple of weeks because it feels like I’m on a break but it will slowly hit me.”