Emmerdale star Claire King's six-month lockdown due to major illness in her 30s
Emmerdale actress Claire King has opened up about shielding for six months during the coronavirus pandemic. Her character recently returned to Emmerdale following an extended 'business trip'
Emmerdale villain Kim Tate to seek revenge as she makes dramatic return to village
Sue Crawford
Any Emmerdale fan knows you cross the formidable Kim Tate at your peril, so spare a thought for an unfortunate driver she caught buying petrol without a mask on.
Actress Claire King, who has played ruthless Kim so well for over 30 years, had just been carefully shielding for six months so was in no mood to let such rule breaking slide.
Channelling her inner Kim she gave the motorist at a North ­Yorkshire petrol station both barrels.
Claire, 57, says: "You've got to have respect for others. When I went to fill up my car I saw somebody who didn't have a mask on. I said, 'Can you put your mask on please?'
"He got all huffy. But you might as well walk around with a loaded shotgun, as not wear a mask. It's just common sense, but a lot of people don't realise that."
Viewers of the ITV soap can enjoy similar straight talking when Kim returns to Emmerdale tomorrow for a typical Tate Christmas.
Her extended absence has been put down to a business trip.
Claire was forced to shield for six months (
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But the actress has been off our screens for so long because she has needed to isolate at home for six months.
Claire was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in her 30s and has a ­compromised immune system.
The long-term disorder causes pain, swelling and stiffness in the joints and can lower the body's immune response to infections such as Covid-19.
So while many Emmerdale cast members returned to work in June, following the first national lockdown, Claire stayed at home.
She only resumed filming in October.
She says: "I could have gone back earlier but because of my low immunity due to my rheumatoid arthritis, Emmerdale thought they'd better not risk it and decided to write me out until they knew it was safe.
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"You can't muck around with coronavirus and for the first month or two I basically didn't go out of the house.
"Unfortunately I know people who've got it and people who have died from it, so you have to take it seriously and you've got to be respectful of others."
She is hoping the easing of restrictions over Christmas will not mean there is partying in the streets and that people still follow the rules and have respect for others.
For months, Claire did not venture further than the garden gate of the North Yorkshire ­countryside home she shares with her businessman partner. She relied on pals and neighbours to deliver food.
Claire says: "I was really strict. We just stayed in. Luckily, we get on fine and we watched lots of box sets."
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Now she takes food to her parents, who live in the same village and are in their 80s.
But she misses close contact and says: "Mum and I still haven't had a hug."
Claire managed to stay occupied during isolation by trying to learn Spanish and helping a friend who runs a university course on acting.
But she says: "It was really difficult because you get out of the cycle of learning. I've kept busy in other ways. I've done all the decorating, put floors down and all sorts. I did all the cleaning – the curtains, the soft furnishings, everything – and I did the garden."
After all that, Claire was ready for a change and, while slightly apprehensive about returning to filming, she was mentally more than ready to return.
She is back on Emmerdale in time for Christmas. Claire says it will not be "quite as traumatic" as last year when her poor old husband Graham met his demise, but there's still a lot going on.
"She wants to spend time with her granddaughter Millie, especially at Christmas, but she's got a battle on her hands with Millie's mum Andrea. Kim's son Jamie has split up from Andrea. Kim still wants to see her granddaughter who she loves very much, so it's not an easy time."
And what of Kim's other great love, men? Claire giggles: "There might be a little love interest coming along. I can't say who with, but there aren't many men left in the village that she hasn't dated, so you can probably narrow it down." Claire's own plans to avoid the cold in January due to her arthritis have suffered a setback.
She says: "We were supposed to be going on a holiday of a lifetime, a South African safari/wine lands trip. That will not be happening now."
Maybe she will have to console herself with the evil scheming of superbitch Kim, one of British soap's favourite villains.
This is her second stint in the role, which started two years ago.
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She originally arrived in Emmerdale in 1989 with husband Frank but left 10 years later. Claire branched out with a variety of other TV roles in her time away from the soap. These included as prison governor Karen Betts in Bad Girls, from 2000-04 and Liz McDonald's friend Erica Holroyd in Coronation Street from 2014-17.
Thankfully, Claire is far warmer than frosty Kim. She says: "We share a love of horses and we're both very organised and business-minded, but I'm a lot softer than Kim.
"I think I've got a better sense of humour, too. She has got one but it's quite sharp at times."
Claire,who grew up in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, loved music from an early age and was a lead singer in a punk band. She also worked as a DJ in a Leeds nightclub, ran her own record company and managed various other bands. She says: "I'm respectable these days, but I do have a rebellious streak and I always will have. I still have plenty of leather jackets."
At 24 she switched to acting and within two years had landed the role of Kim. Her other great interest is horses. In her 20s and 30s she rode in races as an amateur jockey and still rides today when she can.
The actress has a compromised immune system after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis
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She has shares in three horses and also loves Formula One.
"So every Sunday I make sure the roasties are done in time to sit down and watch the grand prix."
Claire has thrown herself into a variety of challenges and finished sixth in 2006's Strictly Come Dancing and lasted 14 days in 2014's CelebrityBig Brother. She says she would have liked going on I'm A Celebrity when she was younger "because I'm not particularly scared of a lot of things, but I probably can't see myself doing it now".
Not that there would be much time with her busy Emmerdale schedule.
She says: "I'm back with a bang and they're throwing scripts at me."
Current rules on set mean people stand two metres apart, there is a limited crew, longer scenes, only two cameras and masks worn everywhere.
Measures that have fully put Claire's mind at rest.
Emmerdale, ITV, each weekday, 7pm, extra episode Thursday, 8pm.
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