Denise Black: 'I've gone grey for Emmerdale'

Denise Black has revealed she let her hair grow grey for her new role in Emmerdale.

The 55-year-old former Coronation Street star is joining Emmerdale as Joanie, the adoptive grandmother of Kyle, the child Amy Wyatt (Chelsea Halfpenny) gave up shortly after he was born.

Denise, who has never played a grandmother before, told ITV's Lorraine: "I've let my hair grow out grey for her, and people have started offering me their seats on the Tube, so that's all you need to know!"

She revealed of Joanie: "She's new, so I'm only just starting out there. I've got a pile of scripts to learn for next week. She's feisty, she plays poker, she drinks pints, she's a grandma."

The actress played hairdresser Denise Osbourne in Coronation Street between 1992 and 1997, with a brief return in 2007. She admits the long hours soap requires is tough, but she is enjoying her time in Emmerdale.

She said: "The nice thing about Emmerdale... is they're beautiful, it's really friendly. It's like a family and they party at night together.

"That makes up for the big stress of what could be a treadmill, so they make it fun."

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.