Samantha Giles is set to make an explosive return to Emmerdale after 18 months.
And the star, who has played Bernice Blackstock in the soap on and off since 1998, has revealed she spent her time off doing spiritual angel readings online after initially struggling in lockdown.
Away from the Dales, the 49-year-old actress is a practising white witch, and has even previously claimed to have used a love spell to meet husband Sean Pritchard.
“Lockdown was a really tough time, I was in denial when it first happened,” says Samantha. “I’d been going up for a couple of interesting jobs, then everything shut down and we realised the seriousness of what we were dealing with.
(Image: ITV)
“It doesn’t matter how spiritual you are, you still have really dark days where you think, ‘I don’t know if I can get through this.’
“I started doing these angel card readings on my Facebook page for free, just as something to give to people as I knew how awful I felt a lot of the time.
“About once every week or so, I picked out the cards for people and read the meaning of it for them.
“So many people said it gave them a bit of hope, so it was really nice for me to do that.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Samantha also occupied her time selling charms, spells and crystals online, and used her experience as a witch as inspiration for her first children’s book Rosemary And The Witches Of Pendle Hill.
The novel came out in August and Samantha has already written the sequel, which is due out in October.
She says: “At the time, I felt like I was doing nothing, but looking back I was actually doing quite a lot of stuff.
“It was a great thrill and surprise to have my first children’s book published, and I wrote another two including the sequel, called Rosemary and the Book of the Dead.
(Image: ITV)
“I also did reiki healing, practising it on the people I was allowed to, which was useful, and some teaching for a TV acting school on Zoom.”
Finding the time to write her book was one of the reasons Samantha left Emmerdale in November 2019, and although she “needed to have a break” from the soap she missed fellow cast members.
“You go from being with people all the time to writing, which is very isolating, and you cannot see or speak to anybody for days,” she says. “I think you need a balance of a bit of both. Now I’m back, I’m enjoying the combination of seeing old friends again and getting my teeth into the character.
“I’ve been enjoying the scenes I’ve done so far, it’s been good fun.”
Samantha admits Bernice being so missed by the soap’s fans was a big motivator in her decision to return.
She says: “I’ve done a lot of things in spite of lockdown that I never thought I’d be able to do, so when this opportunity came up for Bernice to come back it seemed a good thing to do.
“It’s lovely that the character was loved enough for Emmer-dale to want me to come back. It’s a massive surprise and compliment.”
One of the things Samantha has had to adjust to on her return has been filming under coronavirus restrictions. “It’s definitely weird, and much harder in a lot of ways,” she admits. “We have to do everything – our own props, putting on the costumes, and hair and make-up – nobody can touch us.
“It sounds like we are being precious, but if you have got an emotional scene you don’t want to be faffing about checking your blusher or your hair, or that your collar is tucked in, because you want to be concentrating on the lines and the work.”
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Bernice’s return to the village is set to ruffle some feathers, as the character was last seen dumping fiancé Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) the night before their wedding.
Instead of marrying the village doctor, Bernice left for Australia to look after former husband Charlie, who had been badly injured in an accident. Liam quickly moved on, finding love with new partner Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi) – and the couple are set to marry soon with Bernice causing problems for the pair.
“I’d never worked much with Roxy before, but she was good fun,” says Samantha.
“We had some great written stuff. We laughed when recording it which is a good sign, and I hope the audience enjoy it.
“I don’t think Bernice is in love with Liam. What irks her more is the fact that he should be falling at her feet begging for her forgiveness, but he’s not and he’s moved on with somebody else.
“She won’t take this lying down and she is going to fight, even if she doesn’t really want Liam in the end.
“Bernice is an extreme character and she’s a bit of a nightmare when she gets up to her tricks.”
(Image: Yorkshire Television)
Another person set to have a showdown in the future with Bernice is Emmerdale’s Kim Tate.
Bernice’s daughter Gabby Thomas (Rosie Bentham) is currently pregnant with Kim’s son Jamie’s baby, and scheming Kim (Claire King) has taken Gabby under her wing.
“I’m sure that stuff will come in the future, in the next few months when the baby is born,” says Samantha.
“We haven’t been dealing with any of that in the script yet aside from when Bernice has a brief meeting with Kim Tate at the beginning when they talk about these things.
“We’ve not revisited that as yet, but I am sure there is going to be some sort of fight. Bernice is back for a little while, so we will see what happens.”
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7pm on ITV
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
