Payne saddened by Emmerdale legacy

Ex-Emmerdale star Deena Payne has revealed she's "disappointed" that her soap alter-ego has not been given much of a legacy.

The 57-year-old actress, who portrayed Viv Hope for nearly 18 years until she was killed off-screen in a fire in 2011, had hoped producers on the ITV soap would have remembered the character in a more poignant way.

"The thing that disappointed me most was that she wasn't given a grave in the graveyard - her body was just sent down south," she told the Scotsman.

"That's what made me really sad, the fact that I'd put all that involvement into the history of Emmerdale and yet don't have a little placard," she added.

Deena - who stars in the Scottish theatre production of Calendar Girls - also admitted she wasn't happy with the writers in her latter years on the show.

"When she married Bob it was fantastic, then they split us up and there was nothing. I was truly ready to leave but incredibly disappointed in the way they did it," she continued.

"After 18 years, I'd been promised a really big storyline to go out on, but I only had three scenes in my last three episodes."

Despite that, the actress revealed she missed her feisty alter-ego, adding: "That is the only thing I miss about Emmerdale, playing that character. As much as she was different to me, she exorcised a certain part of me."