Former Emmerdale actress Claire King has insisted that despite her onscreen image and long-running role in the soap as Kim Tate, she doesn't always play bad women. The 49-year-old is currently playing a prison governor in Hollyoaks - but said that even though she left catty Kim behind in 1999, the role has not been forgotten. "Everyone thinks I've always played bitchy characters," Claire admitted. I mean, they're strong women, but they're not all bitchyy 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." However Claire admitted that Kim was a lot of fun to play, as it allowed her to get in touch with a different side of her personality. "Kim Tate was just a fantastic character to play because she was very big, and over the top and very camp," she recalled. "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."
