Ex Brookside actress Nicola Stephenson joins the cast of Emmerdale

(Image credit: Helen Turton)

Nicola Stephenson is joining the cast of Emmerdale, to play a teaching assistant named Tess.

The former Brookside, Waterloo Road and Clocking Off star said: “I’m thrilled to be joining the cast of Emmerdale. It’s a British institution and I’m very excited about the storylines that they have planned for my character.”

According to Emmerdale, Tess is a warm, assured person with great heart, who is dedicated to her role as a teaching assistant, but her life will take an unexpected turn when she meets long-serving vet Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt).

Kate Oates, Emmerdale series producer, said: “I am delighted to welcome an actress of Nicola’s calibre to the show. We are keeping the exact details of Tess’s storyline under wraps, but it is safe to say she will mix things up in the village.”

Nicola will start filming on Emmerdale later this month with her debut to screen int he autumn.

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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.