Pauline Quirke on working with her mate Suzanne

Pauline Quirke on working with her mate Suzanne
Pauline Quirke on working with her mate Suzanne

As Suzanne Shaw welcomes new star Pauline Quirke on to the Emmerdale set, TV Times chats to the pair about friendship, family and who’s the best cook... So you both live in the same Buckinghamshire village. Did you get on straight away? Pauline: “Yes. We just all clicked. Suzanne and my daughter Emily are best friends and now Emily is nanny to Suzanne’s son, Corey. They come around to ours a lot for dinner. Steve and Jay play football and me, Suzanne and Emily have a glass of wine. My boy adores her little boy and they play in the garden.” Had you met previously? Suzanne: “Yes at an awards do, but Pauline was talking to Tara Palmer-Tomkinson – so now I always take the mick out of her for ignoring me!” Pauline, what was it like walking on to the set of Emmerdale for the first time? Pauline: "It made me cry. It was my mum’s favourite programme; she loved Emmerdale and Corrie and God help anyone who knocked on the door when they were on!” How did Suzanne help you settle in? Pauline: “We sat down with her schedule and my schedule and she showed me how she worked it out. It’s a bit of a skill. There’s four directors doing 16 episodes and you have to work out who you’re with.” Suzanne: “I was only returning the favour. When I started she took me through my scripts and gave me a few acting lessons. Now it’s just great to have her on board!” So Suzanne what can you tell us about Pauline that we don’t already know? Suzanne: “She makes the best hamburgers in the world. She’s an amazing cook; she makes a good curry as well. I think the boys are missing her curries!” 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.