Katherine Dow Blyton admits her exit from Emmerdale hasn't "hit" her yet - as she bid farewell to Harriet Finch after nearly a decade.
Vicar turned police officer Harriet's final scenes aired yesterday as Harriet succumbed to her injuries following the quad bike crash in the storm. The terrifying scenes had fans in tears as they bid farewell to the much-loved character.
Katherine described her final scenes as very "emotional" and she is still processing her exit from the ITV soap. The technicalities of her exit scene meant she didn't have time to sob, but she opened up about the sweet gift given to her by her colleagues.
Asked what it was like filming her death scenes, she said: "I got very emotional reading it. On the actual day I was covered in blood and I had various bits of woodland hanging out of my hair. We had these industrial wind machines which were literally blowing sand and debris into your eyes. So when it came to it, it wasn’t as emotional because the technicality of what you have to do takes away from the emotion so I managed to get through the day without sobbing.
"The death wasn’t my last scene though but on my last day I received flowers and lovely gifts and messages. I don’t think it will hit me that I’m not going back for a couple of weeks because it feels like I’m on a break but it will slowly hit me."
She admitted: "I will very much miss playing her although I won’t miss wearing the police uniform. What I loved about coming into Emmerdale and what really made me want to play Harriet was because she was coming in as the vicar.
"I loved playing the vicar and the fact that she was flawed and she was a bit off the wall. She had a sense of humour and I loved the character. I’ll very much miss her but she’s with me obviously. We’re not too dissimilar."
And when asked about what's next for herself, Katherine admits she needs some time to "decompress".
"For the first time in my life I don’t have any plans. I think I need time to decompress and to re-evaluate what I want the next part of my life to be. I have so many big decisions but I’m going to feel my way for the rest of this year and reconnect with my friends in London. Just live my life for a bit and not set my alarm for 5:30 in the morning," she shared.
"I’ve done a few self tapes so there’s always something bubbling away but I’m leaving it up to the universe for a couple of months just to see where life takes me. I’ve asked for the plaque that was removed from St Mary's church where it says Harriet Finch was the vicar. Hopefully somebody has saved that for me and I’ll get that. Seeing Harriet Finch up as the vicar was a particular high point for me."
*Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7.30pm on ITV, with an hour long episode on Thursdays.
