‘Emmerdale is like one big family’
You’ve said Emmerdale is the best soap you’ve ever worked on [Gemma – who plays Carly Hope – has also been in Hollyoaks and Casualty]. What makes it so great? It sounds really cheesy, but we’re all like one big family. We’ve got a Whatsapp group and we all hang out. It’s just a really nice, friendly place to work. Charley Webb [who plays Debbie Dingle] sometimes has us over to her house – we had a psychic night there recently; a guy came in and gave us all readings… What did yours say? I can’t tell you! But he told Lucy Pargeter she’d have babies. She was like: “Nah, I don’t think I will.” And then she was! Are you planning on staying on at Emmerdale long-term? Emmerdale is one of those places where you could stay forever. But whenever I get comfortable and everything’s good I think, “Right, what can I do now?” The radio’s going really good [Gemma hosts a breakfast show on Manchester’s Key 103 station], but so is Emmerdale, so at the minute it’s just strong coffees and the M62 [laughs]. How are you managing to fit in your workouts? I do bits at home – but I haven’t been as regimental with it. I’m always doing my yoga, though. Roxy [Shahidi, who plays Leyla] does a yoga class for us all at Emmerdale every lunchtime. We’ve all got our yoga mats. But sometimes, I’m just like: “No, Rox, go away. I want to eat chips!”