10 Facts About… Emmerdale’s Samantha Giles (Bernice)

YOUR lnsidesoap BRIEFING ON THE WOMAN BEHIND EMMERDALE’S BERNICE…

1

Samantha was born in 1971 in Maidstone, Kent – and now lives in Liverpool. She and her husband Sean Pritchard have two daughters, Eve and Olivia – and with her busy soap filming schedule, Sam says the family treasure their weekends. “As any working mum will say, you do have to juggle things!” she said in 2016. “The important thing is the family has to come first.”

2

Samantha first turned up in Emmerdale as brash Bernice Blackstock almost 20 years ago, arriving as a temporary barmaid at the Woolpack in 1998. Her initial stint on the soap lasted until 2002, but she returned to the village in 2012. Bernice has been very unlucky in love over the years, having had four husbands – two of whom turned out to be gay!

3

After she originally finished work on Emmerdale, Samantha swapped soaps for a short period by heading over to Hollyoaks. She took on the role of the manipulative Valerie Holden – Leo Valentine’s secret mistress – from 2008 to 2010, with a break in the middle when she went on maternity leave.

4

Sam has proved herself to be quite a brainbox, having taken part in Celebrity Mastermind in 2010 – answering questions on the films of Alfred Hitchcock. “I was really nervous,” she later admitted. “And when the music started, I just got the giggles!” Her nerves didn’t put her off too much – although she didn’t win, she still managed to accumulate a respectable score of 23 points. Bravo!

5

Samantha claims to be obsessed with salad cream! “I have it on everything,” she once revealed. “I don’t like gravy, so on a roast dinner, I’ll have salad cream instead. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!” She also admits to being addicted to cakes and sweet foods, and makes her own homemade raspberry jam, which she likes to give as a present. Can we please be your friend, Sam?

6

Samantha is a big cat lover and often posts pictures of her two felines, Bob and Maggie, on her Twitter feed – having rescued the adorable ginger moggies and given them a home. Poor Bob went missing in April last year, and Samantha confesses: “I cried every night while he was gone. Cats are like a member of your family.” Thankfully, clever Bob managed to find his own way home a week later. Phew, cat-astrophe averted!

7

We all remember Samantha wearing a sexy black basque when Bernice seduced Andy Sugden back in 2014. But she begged the costume department not to make the underwear too skimpy! “It said in the script Bernice would be wearing ‘complicated underwear’,” she commented. “I was like, ‘It’s 7pm, people don’t want to see that!’. It had to be tasteful.”

8

Samantha appeared alongside her daughter Eve on ITV’S Big Star’s Little Star in March 2016. Eve, then only seven years old, certainly didn’t mind embarrassing her mum. When she was asked to reveal Mummy’s biggest secret, Eve told host Stephen Mulhern that Sam “farts and then coughs to cover it up”! Shocked Samantha blushed, “Everybody does it, don’t they?” We don’t know what you mean (coughs).

9

One of Samantha’s best showbiz mates is actress June Brown – who of course is Albert Square’s Dot Branning. “She’s a very dear friend, and one of my first jobs was a play she directed called Double D.” June ended up casting Samantha in a key role for the Edinburgh show, giving her a lucky break – and it’s good news for us that she did!

10

Sam has revealed that she is a witch – she even cast a spell to bag herself her man. “I’ve always been what you would call Wiccan,” she told Lorraine Kelly last year, confirming that she only practises white magic. So she doesn’t fly around on a broomstick, wearing a pointy hat? “No, a white witch!

And I cast a love spell to find the right person… It’s not as bonkers as it sounds!” The magic clearly worked, as Samantha met her husband Sean shortly afterwards. Maybe Samantha could cast a spell to find the right man for Bernice?