Claire King has already started filming her ‘Emmerdale’ return.
The 55-year-old actress will reprise her role as the evil Kim Tate in the long-running soap for seven days later this year and, although it’s not yet known what mayhem she’ll cause in the village, she’s already started shooting her scenes.
Speaking on ‘This Morning’ on Friday (28.09.18), her co-star Dominic Brunt – who plays Paddy Kirk in the show – said: "I worked with her 20 years ago. I can’t remember where she went. When I came, they’d killed her off and then they brought her back from the dead and then she went away in a helicopter. I think she’s only here for a week. I’ve seen her, she’s already been filming her bits."
Kim hasn’t been seen in the Dales for 20 years but Claire has teased that her alter-ego will certainly be back with a bang as she wreaks havoc for everyone.
The blonde actress said recently: "She is going to come back and wreak havoc, even though she’s just back for a week. She does quite a lot in that week.
"She’s bigger, badder than she was before, and obviously a bit older."
When asked if Kim could be back for longer than a week, Claire replied: "I’m committed to pantomime at Christmas, and I’ve got a film coming out at the end of October, so things are busy."
Following her dramatic Dales departure in a helicopter last time out, Kim will arrive in the village in an Aston Martin DB9.
Claire said: "She arrives in a DB9 this time, which was rather nice, and I got to drive it.
"We didn’t have a helicopter but we had a nice Aston Martin, so great."
The former ‘Bad Girls’ actress felt like she was working on a new job when she returned to the main ‘Emmerdale’ set, but as soon as she headed back to the location of Home Farm – Kim’s former home with late husband Frank Tate (Norman Bowler), who she left to die – she felt "really at home" again.
She explained: "The first few days I was working with Andy Scarborough, who is brilliant and made me feel really at home.
"It did feel like a new job at first until I arrived at Home Farm. Then the old boots came on, and she was back. It felt really at home. It was great.
"I can’t believe it’s been 20 years, but I think the timing is just about right.
"Now the time’s right, we’ve got Joe Tate in there, so a Tate name is back in, and it just seemed to slot in."