Denise Welch has said she "thoroughly enjoyed" playing a juror in soap opera Emmerdale, describing her appearance as "an honour". The 66-year-old, who made her name as Natalie Barnes in Coronation Street, will play head juror Heidi as Tom King appears in court over the domestic abuse of his wife Belle Dingle in Wednesday’s episode of the ITV show. Speaking of her appearance on the show, Welch said: “I thoroughly enjoyed shooting this important episode of Emmerdale. Like many I've been gripped by the Belle and Tom storyline so to play a head juror in the story’s culmination was an honour.
"Parts of the script were taken from real life cases and the charity Refuge were involved in the research. My character Heidi was more emotionally involved so I felt that maybe she had experienced some form of domestic abuse herself. At Loose Women, wearing my other hat, we launched our Facing It Together campaign this year which has been hugely successful in shining a light on all sorts of abuse including of course coercive control so the subject matter is one I’m passionate about.
"To share the jury scenes with Charlie Dale and Jack Ellis and also to see lots of my Emmerdale mates made it a job to remember." Speaking previously about her new role, Denise excitedly told the audience and her fellow Loose Women panellists: "I'm going to be in Emmerdale!".
She said: "It's a one-off one hour special and it's the first time Emmerdale have ever done it. And for those of you who are fans of Emmerdale, there is a very powerful year-long story of domestic abuse. Which of course, appealed to me when I knew I'd be part of it because of our Facing It Together campaign, and this is a culmination of that story.".
