Katherine Dow Blyton looked a million miles away from her Emmerdale vicar-turned-copper character on set of a new film.
The 59-year-old is playing boxing trainer Brendan Ingle's wife Alma in a new biopic of Prince Naseem Hamed called Giant. Pierce Brosnan plays Ingle, and has also been seen on set in Yorkshire looking unrecognisable in a grey wig and vintage clothes.
Dow Blyton's character, vicar turned policewoman Harriet Finch, was killed off in Emmerdale's 50th anniversary episode in 2022 after a quad bike explosion during a monster storm left her and Dales diva Kim Tate severely injured. As the episode opened, Kim was seen lying next to Harriet who appeared lifeless – leading Kim to check her pulse. After discovering Harriet had died, the local millionaire was emotional as she said: "I'm sorry," before fleeing the scene.
Following the dramatic scenes, viewers flocked to social media to share their devastation after a firm fan favourite bowed out of the soap after ten years. One heartbroken viewer said: "They actually killed Harriet off! WTF? #Emmerdale." While a second penned: "Noooooo not Harriet #Emmerdale."
Following her grisly end, Harriet wasn't even given a send off at the village church she oversaw for years. Katherine has since spoken out on her disappointment at her character's story arc, demise, and fans' reactions.
She told the Soap From The Box podcast: "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! The irony is that was the first super soap week I've been involved with! 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? 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."
Harriet added that she also didn't understand why show execs decided to make Harriet quit the church to return to her previous job on the force. She said: "Going back to being a policewoman on the beat at my age was, I think, a bit left field. For the first time in my nearly ten years, I felt uncomfortable in my own skin because it just felt wrong to me.
"When Harriet came in she was such a fabulous character, she was a bit naughty, a bit off the wall, she had a sense of humour. When did you last see Harriet laugh?"
Although she wasn't entirely happy with how Harriet's storylines had progressed, she still "burst into tears' when she knew she was being killed off.
She added: "I went up and they basically said, 'We love Harriet and we're going to give her a good death'. I did sit there for ten seconds thinking, have I done something wrong? They say don't take it personally but it's impossible not to.
"I was taken aback. I said, 'Well you don't know what to do with me anyway, do you?' 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 possibly wouldn't have been brave enough."
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