Charlotte Bellamy wants to be one of the longest-serving soap stars on ‘Emmerdale’.
The 43-year-old actress joined the ITV show back in 2002 as Laurel Thomas and, although she doesn’t have any desire to leave just yet, she’s hoping bosses will keep giving her good storylines for at least another 15 years so she can make history.
Speaking to the Daily Star newspaper, the actress said: "I’d love to stay if they’ll have me. I love my job. I’m so lucky to come to work every day. All soap actors are. Even if you’re lucky enough to be in a really good BBC One drama that might be your job for a year and it might only be 10 days’ filming. I’m working three or four days every week. Why would I ever want to leave? I never would.
"Unless, obviously, I get on the bus that crashes, which you have no control over."
Charlotte’s onscreen husband Ashley Thomas, played by John Middleton, recently left the soap after the character lost his battle with dementia.
The 63-year-old actor portrayed the lovable vicar for 20 years and revealed staff on the set were distraught and even the makeup artist’s "tears were dripping" on him as he was prepped for filming, however, Charlotte said it’s time for Laurel to start to move on.
She said: "We haven’t pondered too much on the death of Ashley. Otherwise I’d be moping around for the next year.
"And I think in soaps you have to move on to a certain extent."
Now fans of the show will see a new struggle for Laurel after she will try to expose murderer Emma Barton and Charlotte said it’s "different emotionally".
She said: "It’s a completely different story and different emotionally too.
"I’ve enjoyed it after everything I’ve done over the last year."
Charlotte Bellamy wants to stay at Emmerdale for at least 15 more years
