SIXTY SECONDS
THE EMMERDALE ACTRESS, 45, ON BEING A CHILD STAR, FINDING LOVE AT WORK AND HER 11 YEARS AS FEISTY MOIRA DINGLE
Your character has had more than her fair share of flings with younger men, hasn’t she?
I’m very lucky. Everyone at work calls me Mucky Moira – nobody calls me Natalie! Those scenes are peculiar to do but I don’t get embarrassed. Having a kiss with someone for the first time in real life is much worse – at work you’re not thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, does he like me or not?’ It’s far worse for the crew than for the actors. I remember when Moira first got with Cain in a garage,
I flattened him against a jeep and snogged his face off. The poor guy with the boom was just under us. Afterwards he said: ‘Oh, I need a cigarette now!’
Didn’t you meet your fella at work?
I’m seeing Jonny McPherson, who plays Emmerdale’s Dr Liam
Cavanagh. We went to Lapland to do a charity event and got to know each other more, then had our first date in January. I was single for quite a while before. A few of us have met people on Emmerdale – it’s because you’re constantly working and you don’t get the chance to meet others. He’s such a lovely man. We have a good laugh and a nice time – it just works. I’m probably the happiest I’ve ever been.
Are you and Moira alike?
Yes and no. I don’t have any children, I have a dog. Moira’s life is too complicated for me and I wouldn’t get into the same messes. I wouldn’t go through as many men as her, either.
You were a child star – how did that happen?
I was extremely shy as a child and found it easier to express myself by pretending to be other people. As a joke my brother entered me into BBC’s Young Entertainer Of The Year on the children’s show Going Live! Much to my surprise I won it, doing impressions of people from EastEnders and Bros. Phillip Schofield presented the show and still remembers me from it.
How did you progress from comedy to acting?
I worked on a film with Tom Conti and when I was nine I joined the Scottish soap, Take The High Road. My mum wrote to them for a few years until they were ready to take on younger actors to appeal to a younger audience.
You were teetotal for a while – did lockdown put paid to that?
I did Dry January once and kept it up for a whole year. I felt amazing for it. I’m drinking again now, just not as much. If I hadn’t drunk in lockdown I’d have been very bored. It was nice to have a glass of wine while I watched a box set.
Phillip Schofield still remembers me from winning a BBC talent show on Going Live!
Moira was recently the victim of a hit-and-run – and it’s not that long since she was almost killed by a tractor. Are your bosses trying to tell you something?
Maybe! She always ends up in the middle of things and I get to do some good stuff. Recently she ended up underwater after a boat was blown up. That was fantastic to film but very scary, I’m not going to lie.
Did you do your own stunt, then?
Yes. It’s quite hard to stay calm when you can’t breathe under water. When they take the mouthpiece away, you just have the oxygen you’ve saved in your lungs at that point. I was probably there for a minute like that but it felt much longer. Your buddy divers are on the side but you still feel very isolated. We filmed it in a proper underwater tank and some of it in a lake, with a wetsuit under our clothes. It took five minutes to slowly go down and then they fixed me on to something, because Moira was meant to be stuck in the weeds.
How did you spend lockdown?
I took up road biking and decorated my bedroom – and then regretted starting it! Jonny and I also made a lot of meals and took them round to my mum because she was high-risk. Jonny lives on a narrowboat so he was at my house during the first part of lockdown.
What impact has social distancing had on work at Emmerdale?
You’re used to going around the building saying ‘Hi!’ ‘Hi!’ ‘Hi!’ and seeing hundreds of people in a day. Now it’s limited so it’s sad in that sense because it feels as though a bit of the life and the soul has been taken out of it. We have the two-metre rule, there are less of us in work at a time and we don’t work with as many people. With all the rules in place, you kind of feel as though you’re back at school a wee bit but it has been well thought out and well executed – and, of course, we have to do it for the good of everybody.
Has it put an end to kissing scenes?
You can’t touch but actually leaving it to the imagination is sometimes just as sexy, if not more, as seeing it all the time. There’ll still be Mucky Moira, just behind closed doors. I hope so!
Emmerdale is on ITV at 7pm every weekday, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursday