Ex Corrie actress Denise joins Emmerdale

Former Coronation Street star Denise Black, best known as hairdresser Denise Osbourne, is joining the cast of Emmerdale.

The actress, 55, began filming on ITV's Emmerdale this week and will play the adoptive grandmother of Kyle, the child Amy Wyatt (Chelsea Halfpenny) gave up shortly after he was born.

Denise - who also starred in Channel 4 series Queer As Folk - will be seen from August in her new Emmerdale role.

Amy gave Kyle - her child with bad boy Cain Dingle - up for adoption two years ago, after giving birth in the village graveyard. Viewers will learn that the youngster is now living with his caring and loving grannie Joanie, played by Denise.

She said: "Joanie's a character I've never played before. My first grandma. Dear lord, that came round quick.

"She is going to get some very tasty stories, so I'm really looking forward to it. I already know quite a few of the cast and I met Lesley Dunlop (Brenda Walker) on my first day, who said 'you'll love it here, it's a lovely job'. The casting came through on my birthday so there we go, what a present. I can't believe my luck."

Emmerdale series producer Kate Oates said: "Her story will see her playing against some of our best-loved characters, and I know an actress of her calibre will be a fabulous asset to the show."

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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.