Claire King: I'm not always bad

Former Emmerdale star Claire King insists she doesn't always play bad women.

The 49-year-old actress, who has been appearing in Hollyoaks as a firm but fair prison governor - played superb**** Kim Tate in the Yorkshire soap for 10 years.

But while she left Kim behind in 1999, no one else has forgotten her.

Claire said: "Everyone thinks I've always played b****y characters. I mean, they're strong women, but they're not all b****y characters - they always remember Kim Tate funnily enough.

"But recently I've just been doing comedy; swinging around the pole doing The Naked Truth. Rob Ellis, one of the writers on Hollyoaks, wrote a play called Fetish Knights, which I did last month and we're going to do it again in January. It's all about Canal Street."

But the soap star admits she did love letting her b****y side out as Kim.

She said: "Kim Tate was just a fantastic character to play because she was very big, and over the top and very camp. So I seem to get cast in those sort of parts now, or working for the civil service, actually - one of the two!

"I loved playing Kim, and I got paid to ride horses all day so that was fantastic."