Deena Payne is leaving Emmerdale

Emmerdale's longest-serving female star Deena Payne is leaving the soap after 18 years.

Deena, who plays postmistress and village gossip Viv Hope,
will bow out in a top-secret plot that show chiefs promise will be part of a "huge winter storyline".
The actress, 56, said in a statement:
"Emmerdale has been such a gift to me for the past 18 years
and I've taken every challenge with both hands and enjoyed the ride.


Deena Payne

Although shocked at the news, Deena says she’d been expecting something to happen
as her character, once the centre of village life, had increasingly less to do.
“The last 16 months have been frustrating,” she said before her wedding blessing.
“Things were changing and I think I knew I wasn’t going to be part of that change.
To come in now and then to clear a table or throw a line over my shoulder was horrible.
In the past I had two or three major storyline challenges each year.
I relished them and grasped them.
I felt bewildered and thought about not accepting another contract because I was so unhappy.
If there’s no future for the longest-serving female cast member, it’s time to go.
Which is sad in itself.”