Emmerdale star Sophie Powles has been reflecting on how she found returning to
the ITV soap. In tonight’s instalment, Moira Dingle (Natalie J Robb) faced her brain
tumour operation. As she was given the anaesthetic and slipped into unconsciousness,
we then saw what was happening in Moira’s mind as she slept. The first thing she saw were Isaac (Bobby Dunsmuir) and Kyle (Huey Quinn) playing at brain surgery at home, their game interspersed with real sounds of the operation that was taking place. They told Moira she’d fallen asleep in her wellies. Moira walked outside in the sunshine and sat down to watch the boys play. It was an idyllic scene, and became even more magical when she realised she wasn’t alone. Sitting beside Moira was her daughter Holly Barton, played by Sophie once more. Holly died of a drugs overdose in 2016, in an episode that gained huge amounts of praise for the way it sensitively handled Moira’s discovery of her daughter’s death. In the sequence we saw tonight, Moira could hardly believe she was seeing her daughter again and questioned, ‘Are you here?’ before hugging her little girl tightly.
The writing was beautiful as Moira cried tears of joy and told Holly, ‘You smell so lovely, like flowers.’ Holly looked happy and healthy, and told her mum, ‘I’m better now.’ Following these scenes, actress Sophie has opened up about what it was like reprising her role, working with Natalie J Robb again, and how much her life has changed since leaving the show. ‘Since leaving the show I have been busy. I’ve travelled with my boyfriend Mark and friends. Had amazing opportunities assisting and producing for him on various film projects. I’ve done a lot of theatre, voice over work and written poems and I sell prints with my brilliant friend Emily at The Happy Newspaper. ‘The main thing is becoming a mum to two incredible little girls. It’s without a doubt the most life-changing and the best thing that has ever happened to me.’ She added: ‘I was really happy to come back.
Being a part of Emmerdale was just the best experience. Genuinely made friends for life in the cast and crew, learnt so much and have the best memories. So really grateful to come back and work with friends again on a show I love so much. It’s a really powerful episode and Nats and I both cried when we read the scenes. They are really beautifully written.’ Pondering over the day itself, Sophie said: ‘It was so lovely to come back for the day. To be honest it felt like I had never left. Natalie and I facetimed the night before to run everything and check we were on the same page. And the minute I was back on sat with Natalie also in character I just slipped straight back into character. Hair, makeup and costume did an amazing job of helping me feel like Holly again.’ ‘I really do miss the show and working with friends. As an actress, constant work is really rare. I miss just knowing I would be doing what I love every week.’ She smiled: ‘I have the best memories of working on Emmerdale. I was so young when I started the show. I learnt so much. Laughed A LOT and made friends I call family. A lot of the older cast and crew took me under their wing and showed me so much love and kindness. ‘Sadly some of them are know longer with us, especially my beautifully magic friend Kitty, our incredible producer Gavin. I’ll always be so grateful that I met them and for everything they did for me.’
