The Soap Years

Will Emmerdale’s Andrea reveal her husband’s crimes, now he’s rejected her? We ask actress Anna Nightingale

The storylines time will never forget

Desperate Andrea Tate turns to blackmail this week in a last-ditch bid to save her marriage. After her cheating husband Jamie left Moira for dead in a hit-and-run accident she persuades him not to turn himself in – before warning him that if he leaves her for mistress Belle, she’ll go to the police herself.

‘Initially Andrea wants to support her husband and would break the law to keep their family together,’ explains Anna Nightingale, who plays Andrea. ‘But when Jamie tells her he loves Belle, not her, that changes to an approach of, “Go against me and you’ll see what I’m capable of”.

‘As events unfold, her feelings keep changing. This could play out for days, weeks – or even years.’

Jamie and Belle began secretly seeing each other in January after he found out Andrea had cheated on him. Andrea recently fled Emmerdale after exposing the lovers but Jamie was on his way to bring her home when he hit Moira, who’s now in a coma.

Now Andrea takes charge of the situation and implores him to tell no one what he’s done. ‘Andrea points out what he might lose by coming clean,’ says Anna. ‘She’s also worried that if he tells Belle what’s happened, Andrea will be frozen out.’

She insists the husband and wife put on a united front to halt any ongoing suspicion about Jamie’s guilt, before organising a date night.

Anna, who lives in London with her partner Daren and three-year-old daughter Autumn, says, ‘Andrea tries to entice, manipulate, and appeal emotionally to Jamie from her perspective. She thinks, “If I can just make him fall for me, or miss our cuddles, it will bring us together”’.

But the plan backfires when

Jamie tells Andrea he wants to be with Belle, not her. The bombshell leads Andrea to threaten to go to the police if he walks out on her, leaving Jamie trapped and Andrea holding all the cards. ‘Even though Jamie keeps rejecting her, Andrea will keep fighting,’ she says.

Anna, who made her TV debut in time-shifting detective drama Ashes To Ashes in 2009 before appearing in Casualty, Doctors and Misfits, has been on Emmerdale since June 2019. However, her time on the

show was interrupted when production was halted in March.

Now back filming under social distancing rules, Anna says, ‘It feels like a new job, but with a sense of familiarity. It’s been good to be back, although it’s surreal as we all have to keep our distance and, with Emmerdale having such a family vibe, it’s been hard not to hug.

‘But everybody wants it to work and we’re trying our best to make it as successful as possible.’ ■