Ex Emmerdale star Anne: I got bored and depressed

Ex Emmerdale star Anne: I got bored and depressed
Ex Emmerdale star Anne: I got bored and depressed

Anne Charleston has admitted she got 'seriously bored and depressed' towards the end of her stint in Emmerdale. The actress played Lily Butterfield in the rural soap until last year, but the character rode out of the village on a motorbike with Eddy Fox (Paul Darrow). She said: "I really wanted to do the show and I love the show and the character, but they just started to turn her into a special extra and I was seriously bored and depressed - I thought it was a pity because I think she had enormous possibilities. "They just weren't giving me enough to do and I was away from home. If you're away from home, you need to be doing something interesting, otherwise it becomes a bit unbearable. If they'd done something good with the character I'd have loved to stay on." However, she was pleased her exit stayed true to the spirit of her character. "At least they gave me something to do in the last few weeks. That was quite fun. She was a mad character so at least they gave her back the qualities she had when she first came in. I went out on a bit of a high, which was nice." Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan

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.