ON THE COVER Lesley Dunlop Drama for Brenda!
Emmerdale’s Lesley Dunlop has found love on-screen and off – with drama all the way
“Elizabeth Taylor said, ‘Right, hold my hand’ and we flew across the road…”
It was only two years ago that Lesley Dunlop tied the knot for real – in a romantic Cornish wedding with her Emmerdale co-star Chris Chittell.
Fast forward two years and she’s walking down the aisle a second time as her Emmerdale character Brenda Walker marries smoothtalking café owner Bob Hope. But that’s where the similarities end, as Lesley is quick to point out.
For while first time round about three days! By the time we’d finished, I was ready to set fire to the dress!” she jokes.
Warm, friendly and funny, Lesley is one of television’s best-loved actresses. In the 1990s she starred in the long-running BBC sitcom MayToDecember alongside Anton Rodgers, followed by eight years in the popular Sunday-night drama series WhereTheHeartIs.
Since arriving in the Dales ten years ago she has featured in some ground- realises how Bob and Laurel really feel about each other. She’s convinced that he will stay with her and this fling with Laurel will fizzle out. She’s a better woman than I am. I couldn’t be that tolerant – I’m a bit more wary!”
Things get off to a bad start when Brenda arrives at the church and there’s no sign of Bob. “That’s when she really thinks it’s over and that she’s made a stupid mistake and made a fool of herself,” Lesley says. “It remains to be seen whether Bob makes it to wanted to feed some turkey to the seagulls down at the harbour. It was pitch black and freezing and he was rustling this plastic bag. I thought it had bits of turkey in it and then he suddenly dropped to the floor and I realised what the plastic bag was for – it was to kneel on!”
Lesley, who lives in West Yorkshire, was a child actress in the 1970s in series including ALittlePrincess and SouthRiding. Then, at the age of 21, she found herself working alongside the sun shone, the groom was on time and everybody enjoyed a blissfully happy day, the same can’t be said of her on-screen nuptials.
“It was exhausting – there was a lot of standing around in uncomfortable shoes and a tight dress, and it was bitterly cold because there was no room for thermals under a wedding dress,” Lesley laughs.
“It wasn’t as much fun as it looks – unlike my own wedding. That went in the blink of an eye. It was so perfect and such a simple wedding, whereas Brenda’s wedding went on and on for breaking storylines, including her touching portrayal of Brenda’s cancer battle, which memorably saw her have her head shaved on screen.
Now there’s more drama to come as Brenda and Bob prepare to tie the knot this week. As regular viewers know, the wedding follows a tempestuous time which has seen Bob cheat with widow Laurel Thomas.
Heartbroken Brenda found out about the affair, but has still decided to go ahead with the wedding.
“Basically she really loves him,” Lesley explains. “She’s very naïve. I don’t think she the church and whether Brenda does finally get her happy-after-ever.”
Lesley meanwhile is enjoying every second of her own happiness. She has two grown-up daughters, Daisy and Rosie, from her 20-year relationship with actor Christopher Guard, but had never married until she met Chris, who plays Eric Pollard.
“He’s been married before and didn’t really want to get married again, so his proposal was completely out-of-the-blue,” Lesley recalls with a smile.
“We were in a pub in Cornwall and he said he
Elizabeth Taylor in the film ALittleNightMusic.
“She was everything you would expect of an oldfashioned film star,” Lesley recalls with awe. “She was feisty, moody, charming and lovely – and she befriended me.
“I went to the opera in Vienna with her, her mother and her entourage. When we came out, the car was the other side of a three-lane road and we had to run. She said, ‘Right, hold my hand,’ and we flew across the road with her dragging her mother. When we got into the car there were cameras everywhere and faces pressed up against the car window.”
Lesley and Chris don’t attract quite as much attention when they’re out, but she admits that people often do a double-take.
“They go, ‘oh my God, what are you doing? What would Bob say?’” She laughs. “But then they quite like it – they get two for the price of one when they take a selfie!”