Leyla's sister Alicia Harding

[Perdita]

GORGEOUS Natalie Anderson will "raise hell" as the latest sexy addition to the cast of Emmerdale.

The 28-year-old will play "brassy and trashy" Alicia Harding, who will blaze a trail of destruction as she tries to settle old scores with her sister Leyla (Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi).

Last night Bradford-born Natalie, who starred as nurse Stella Davenport in ITV1's The Royal, said: "I'm thrilled to be joining the show. I'm a Yorkshire girl so a part in Emmerdale is a dream come true.

"Alicia's a complex character. She's not all she seems and is set to make life complicated for Leyla."

Other new signings include hunky Jason Merrells, 41, as tycoon Declan Macey and ex-Hear'Say singer Suzanne Shaw, 28, playing maneater Eve Jenson.

[Perdita]

West End actress Natalie Anderson is to swap the fictional realm of Oz for the Yorkshire Dales later this year as she joins the cast of Emmerdale.

The 28-year-old - whose year-long stage stint as Nessarose, The Wicked Witch of the East in the award-winning musical Wicked came to an end in March - takes on the role of Leyla Harding's (Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi) fiery sibling Alicia.

Described as "brassy and trashy and full of attitude", Alicia bounds into village in the summer and makes it clear from the outset that she has unfinished business with Leyla, who has only recently settled down with boyfriend David (Matthew Wolfenden).

With their relationship far from perfect, Leyla's forced to deal with Alicia's arrival in an attempt to keep her "murky and scandal-ridden" past buried.

Speaking of her casting, Anderson said: Natalie says: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining the show. It'll be wonderful to be working back home in Yorkshire again. I'm a Yorkshire girl so a part in Emmerdale is a dream come true!

She added: "Alicia is a complex character, she's not all she seems and she's set to make life quite complicated for Leyla."

Series producer Gavin Blyth commented: "We're delighted to have Natalie on board. She's a great actress and a wonderful addition to the cast. Alicia will start stirring things up in Leyla's life the minute she sets foot in the village."

Anderson - who also starred as nurse Stella Davenport in The Royal - is due to begin filming at the rural soap's home in Leeds next month, and will make her screen debut in August.

[lizann]

Leyla is annoying as it is

[lizann]

EMMERDALE is turning up the heat on its rivals with yet another *sizzling new signing.



And they don’t get much *hotter than sexy actress *Natalie Anderson – as our stunning picture shows.


The gorgeous brunette, best known for playing saucy nurse Stella Davenport in hospital *drama The Royal, starts filming with the ITV1 soap next month as Leyla Harding’s trashy sister *Alicia.


But Leyla, who has just settled into domestic bliss with hunky boyfriend David Metcalfe, will not be happy to see her.


So when she blazes into the village full of *attitude and with an axe to grind, Leyla is terrified she’ll reveal her murky past.
And it quickly *becomes clear there is a lot of bad blood *between the sisters.



Speaking about joining the soap, Natalie, 28, a proud Yorkshire lass, said the part was a dream come true for her.


The Bradford-born beauty said: “I’m thrilled to be joining the show. It’ll be wonderful working back home in Yorkshire again.



“Alicia is a complex character, she’s not at all what she seems and is set to make life quite *complicated for Leyla.”


Natalie is the latest in a string of new signings after bosses decided that sex would be their secret weapon in the ratings war with Corrie and EastEnders. They’ve already *unleashed former Hear’Say babe *Suzanne Shaw and hunk Jason Merrells, both of whom are set for even more romp-filled action in a few months.



An Emmerdale insider told the Daily Star Sunday: “Natalie is *absolutely stunning, a real *head-turner.

“Her character is outspoken and brassy.


“But she’s also one of the sexiest girls we’ve ever had on the soap. She’s going to set pulses *racing.”



Producer Gavin Blyth said: “We’re delighted to have Natalie on board.


“She’s a great *actress and a *wonderful addition to the cast.”



Viewers can catch Natalie on screen from August.

[tammyy2j]

She will probably go after David

[tammyy2j]

Former Wicked actress Natalie Anderson makes her debut in Emmerdale next week, appearing in the role of Leyla Harding's fiery sister Alicia Gallagher. The siblings have not seen eye-to-eye for some time, and following the death of their mother, Alicia wastes no time in telling Leyla that she's not welcome at the funeral. When Leyla ignores the warning and turns up at the service, the pair's spat gets even worse. What's the reason for their feud and will they ever make it up? Here, DS chats to West End star Natalie to find out.

How did the part in Emmerdale come about?
"Well, I've known the producer for quite a long time and I'd previously auditioned in front of him for Coronation Street. I'd also worked with the executive producer, Steve November, on The Royal. I think that when the character of Alicia came up, because I'd been up for a sister in Coronation Street, they thought of me and asked me to come in and meet with them. It all went from there really, and it's been lovely."

Did you watch Emmerdale before you joined the show?
"Oh yeah, I'm a huge Emmerdale fan! I'm a bit of an Emmerdale geek. Being a Yorkshire girl, it's always been my soap of choice because it's the one that I can relate to more than anything else. My very first primary school was just down the road from a farm - at the bottom of the farm was our school. So for me, the role just made sense because I really related to it. I've always been a fan."

How would you describe Alicia?
"Definitely bold as brass! She doesn't mince her words and she's quite hot-headed as well. She's got quite a tough exterior. The easiest way for me to describe her is that she's a bit like a hurricane - she arrives, she spins things up and then she goes, leaving all this chaos behind her! She's a great character to play as I'm thinking that I'm hopefully not really like that!"

How is she first introduced?
"To be honest it's not very nice how she comes into the village. Leyla and Alicia's mum has sadly passed away, and Alicia comes to the village to warn Leyla that she doesn't want her at the funeral and she shouldn't come. It's quite negative from the audience's perspective - they'll be thinking, 'Oh gosh, what's gone on here?' They probably won't like my character straight away because she's not very nice to her sister."

Leyla ignores Alicia's wishes and goes to the funeral anyway. How does Alicia react?
"Not very well! They kind of have a bit of a screaming match at each other and it doesn't go down very well with Alicia - she's really annoyed that she's turned up. But she obviously respects the fact that it is her mum too, and she does have a right to be there. So for the sake of their mother, she tolerates it."

What's caused the bad blood between Alicia and Leyla?
"All I can really say is that something has definitely gone on between them! What it is will be revealed in the next few weeks. The biggest clue I can give is that Alicia is fiercely protective of her family unit and she doesn't want anything to come between that. So you can read into that what you want! (Laughs)"

Does Alicia just want Leyla to stay out of her life, or will we see her trying to cause trouble for her sister?
"She doesn't really want to cause trouble - she just doesn't want her around. She doesn't wish anything bad on her sister, she just doesn't want her in her life at the moment. She'd prefer it if she just disappeared."

Is there any chance that they can put their differences aside and move on?
"Hopefully we'll see that despite all the bad blood, hate and love are very close and that these sisters really do love each other. Fingers crossed we'll see that there's a softer side and have some sort of reconciliation. But we'll just have to wait and see…"

Alicia has a husband, Justin, and a son called Jacob. What's her relationship like with them?
"She absolutely dotes on her son - she really, really loves him to pieces. With her husband, things are a little bit strained between them when we first see them. But she's a strong family woman with morals. She's very much for being a good wife and a good mum."

What's it like playing someone who's so outspoken?
"Do you know what, it's really good fun! It's my way of venting! I hope that I'm a bit more polite, but she says stuff that I would never dream of saying! I think it's a bit like therapy - if you've had a rough day, go in and be Alicia for a day and you just get to say what you want!"

And we've heard that Alicia has a bit of a trashy dress sense - has that been fun?
"Yeah, it's brilliant. I've been so lucky because I've had a lot of input into how she looks, how she dresses and everything she wears. It's been great fun because, again, her dress sense is completely different to mine. She's glamorous and wears really low-cut tops and short skirts. But there's definite reasons for the way she dresses and I'm hoping that viewers will start to understand Alicia and see that underneath this tough exterior, she's quite insecure. I think some of that is perhaps reflected in the way she dresses. But she's definitely quite brassy - there's a lot of jewellery and a lot of fake hair and fake nails!"

Where can you see Alicia going in the long-term?
"Oh gosh, who knows? Terrorising the village! We'll have to just wait and see. I'm interested myself to see what the writers are going to do with the character. I think I'd definitely like to see her ruffle a few more feathers in the village…"

How does Alicia compare to characters that you've played in the past?
"Alicia is completely different to anything else that I've ever played. My character on The Royal was quite bubbly to start with and again quite loud, but she really matured in the three or four years that we saw her and tended to be a bit quieter towards the end. Alicia is just much more outspoken and quite tough, whereas I've never really been asked to play a character with a hard edge. I tend to get the roles that are a little bit softer."

What's it like working with Rokhsaneh?
"She's absolutely fantastic. I really love her and we get on so well. It's so nice because we're both chatty, bubbly people, so we're very similar and that's quite nice. We have such a laugh when we're on set together, and especially when we've been filming scenes where we've not really been getting on! It's been really funny because as soon as the scene's over, we just start laughing!"

And have the rest of the cast made you feel welcome?
"Yeah, the rest of the cast have been so lovely. I was fortunate that I'd met a couple of people before joining. When I was on The Royal there were events with ITV, so I'd met Tom Lister and Matthew Wolfenden before. That's been quite nice. I've been lucky as well because a lot of the crew I knew from working on The Royal, so I've not felt quite as scared - although I was absolutely petrified on my first day!"

You joined the show at a similar time to Pauline Quirke - did you bond as the two new girls?
"Yeah! It was lovely because Pauline's such a lovely lady. The pair of us were discussing what it was like to walk through the village - it's really iconic and it's like, 'Oh my gosh!' You have to pinch yourself as you're really lucky to be there. It's been nice - we've had a bit of bonding over that!"

You played the role of Nessarose in Wicked for almost a year - is theatre something that you'd like to do more of?
"I definitely want to do more musical theatre! At the moment, my priority is definitely Emmerdale - just enjoying whatever they give me for however long they want me there. But I definitely want to do more musical theatre sometime in the future. Doing Wicked was tough because I was away from my husband for a year and I only got to see him on a Sunday, so that side of things is incredibly difficult, but having Emmerdale is amazing because I'm living back at home now. But I think I'd consider it somewhere along the line in the future - doing another show or something. Obviously if it was offered to me - I can't just assume that I'm just going to get something!"

What's more demanding - a theatre schedule or a soap schedule?
"I think I would say that a theatre schedule is more demanding. We do get the odd day off when we're filming Emmerdale. Yes, we may film 15 or 16 hour days, but it's not constant - it all depends on the storyline that you're in. Whereas, with theatre, it's eight shows a week and you've only got so many weeks off. Last year, I literally had Christmas Day off over Christmas, so I didn't really get to spend time with my family. So theatre is definitely much more demanding."

After all of the changes that have been made to Emmerdale, what do you think of the current state of the show?
"I think it's absolutely brilliant. It's getting better and better. The production team are absolutely fantastic, the writing team is brilliant, the storylines are brilliant and I'm so proud to be part of it right now because I think it's coming into a new era. Even though it's always been really popular, I think it's really getting to the point now where it's making its own stand against Coronation Street and EastEnders. It's standing there on its own two feet and being taken for itself, in its own right. Danny Miller, who plays Aaron, is absolutely amazing and when they had all the stuff with Sally Spode last year, it was absolutely fantastic viewing. I'm a huge fan of the show anyway, so I'm really proud."

Are you enjoying working with Gavin?
"It's been great working with him - he's absolutely fantastic and he's let me have quite a lot of input with this character. He's given me quite a definite brief, but then I've been able to talk to him about ideas for the character, so that's been really lovely. He's such a nice guy."

[alan45]

...

[Perdita]

Emmerdale newcomer Natalie Anderson has revealed that she wears "chicken fillets" when filming the show.

The actress, who makes her debut on the ITV1 soap this week playing Leyla Harding's sister Alicia Gallagher, admitted that it helps in the portrayal of her character.

Speaking to the Daily Star Sunday, she said: "I showed my mum one of the first pictures I had taken as Alicia. The first thing she noticed was the size of my boobs, which wasn’t hard because they’re humongous.

"It’s a big part of who the character is. Alicia is someone who needs to feel womanly and what better way to do that than show off a great chest. So I wear a padded bra with two chicken fillets sewn into each side. When I first saw them I couldn’t believe them either. But that really is as far as I’d go.

"So many beautiful young actresses are going under the knife and most of them really don’t need to. It saddens me when I read about girls having different cosmetic surgery procedures. You just have to love what God gave you."

Speaking of her character's arrival in the village, she added: "Alicia is bound to get judged straight away because of the way she dresses. But there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye.

"The sisters hate each other but it’s going to be a while before viewers find out why. When I read the scripts I was like, ‘Oh my God, well I didn’t see that one coming!'"

[walsh2509]

on Leyla and David's shop ? the Wylde's had it and couldn't make a penny with it so they close it down. So what do this pair do , buy the shop and open it with nearly the same sort of goods, little or no trade seen going in to it and you would imagine no passing trade. How do they keep it going ? Ok its a soap but come on

[Perdita]

I agree with you, thought she was doing something else with the shop, not sell the same merchandise as before.