Wendy has doubts about her son
EMMERDALE STAR SUSAN COOKSON REVEALS THAT HER ALTER EGO IS BEGINNING TO WONDER IF VICTORIA COULD BE TELLING THE TRUTH…
This has been a hell of a challenge for me as an actor,” exclaims Emmerdale star Susan Cookson, as we sit down for a chat about her character Wendy being the most hated woman in the village. “There are stories I’ve looked at online, about people committing crimes and how that affects the parents. To suddenly be in that situation, where you find out something about your child that you never knew, it’s a really hard place to go. Wendy’s head is an absolute mess.”
Since moving to the village last year, Wendy has maintained that rape victim Victoria is a liar and her now-dead son Lee didn’t commit the terrible crime he was accused of. But now her grandchild has arrived, Wendy needs to find a way of getting on with Victoria if she’s to have any access to him. Can she do that?
“Wendy’s son is dead, so she feels she needs to do the right thing by this child,” shares Susan. “This is her first grandson, and she’s desperate to have contact with him – he has to know who this side of his family is. Wendy’s trying to morally do the right thing, even if she and Victoria can’t get on.”
What’s made things worse for Wendy is that her surviving son, Luke, believes his brother was capable of attacking Victoria. But could Wendy’s take on the situation be about to change? Her world is rocked this week when Victoria tells her she has a therapy session to help her deal with being raped – and her description of events leaves Wendy questioning whether she might be telling the truth after all…
Wendy feels she needs to do right by her grandchild
“It’s done in such a way that those cogs are now turning, and Wendy’s doubting what happened,” Susan tells us. “By and large, she sees that Victoria is a lovely girl, so she starts to question why someone like that would come up with this story, and accuse a man of doing this if there wasn’t something in it. But, of course, it’s very difficult as she can’t go to Lee and say, ‘This is what I’ve heard’. In the midst of it all, she’s still grieving for her son, but it’s planted a seed of doubt for Wendy.”
If Wendy does realise the truth of the situation and finally calls a truce with Victoria, it will certainly make Susan’s interactions with
Emmerdale viewers much easier. She recently told us that some of the show’s fans were upset at her character’s behaviour towards Victoria – and she’s since found herself having to explain Wendy’s viewpoint to them.
“We had a fan-club dinner a few weeks ago in Leeds, where I got to meet viewers for the first time,” she reveals. “Initially, they said to me, ‘You’re not nice to Victoria, and Lee did it, you know!’ But then I talked to them about my approach to the character, and a lot of them said they had to agree with me.
If that was your child being accused, you’d want to defend them till you had absolute proof – and that’s what makes this plot so interesting. Personally, I’m absolutely loving the conflict!”
She may have had some tricky dealings with fans, but Susan’s not letting it taint her Dales experience. In fact, the actress – who also played Casualty’s Maggie Coldwell for four years – reckons she’s loved every moment of her time in the soap so far. “It’s a dream job,” she beams. “I’d finished a scene the other day and was walking past the Woolpack. I turned to one of the other actors and said, ‘I never, ever want to take this for granted’.
“It’s an amazing place to work, and the cast and crew are completely supportive,” adds Susan. “You feel as if you’re part of a special family – I’m blessed.”