Actress Lisa Riley is best known for her role in one of Emmerdale's most infamous families, the Dingles (as Mandy Dingle). She is a panellist on Loose Women and in 2012 featured in Strictly Come Dancing. In 2017 Lisa starred in real-life drama, Three Girls, which went on to win a BAFTA.
After three months of lockdown, Emmerdale started filming again in June – and Lisa couldn’t have been more delighted to be reunited with Mandy’s adopted son Vinny – played by Bradley Johnson – and old-flame and on-off boyfriend, Paul, played by Reece Dinsdale.
“Oh, my screen family! We’re the dream team. I think we’re like a really good sandwich. There’s me and Reece who are like the slices of Warbies (Warburtons) either side while Bradley is the BLT filling in the middle.
“We have such a laugh together and it just works – there’s such a chemistry and an energy between us. Reece and Bradley are true professionals. Even when we’re having a break, we’ll spend the time running through scenes together. That’s when you find stuff that’s not on the page. I love that.
“When the three of us are apart we’re constantly messaging each other. We care about each other, what we’re doing and we have a ball – even under the ‘2m apart’ regime.”
Speaking of which, how is Lisa dealing with the new restrictions?
“It’s eerily quiet on set and in the studio,” she says. “There’s just not the same volume of people around. It is a bit lonely in the dressing room. I’m used to being surrounded by my girls. Instead I have to make do with Bruno Mars on the iPad! However, safety-wise ITV really have gone the extra mile."
I feel safer at work than I do in in the supermarket or even my own home
There are also challenges that come with doing her own hair and make-up.
“Yep – the wig goes on a bit skew-whiff and the false eyelashes might look a bit lopsided,” Lisa laughs. “Sometimes, in scenes of high emotion, I worry that a lash will come off and I’ll end up looking like Alice Cooper!
I’ve taught myself a new skill, though – learning to do Mandy’s Shellac fingernails. There is also something really lovely about being so self-contained. We’re all in our little bubbles together and we do our own continuity, making sure we are dressed exactly the same if scenes are filmed at different times. I hope the viewers will bear with us if, at times, things aren’t as smooth as they normally are.”
It’s typical of Lisa to be honest and to speak as she finds. She was refreshingly candid about her weight issues, for instance, when she wrote her Honesty Diet cookbook in 2017 – a regime that saw her dropping from a dress size 28 to a size 14.
“I had made myself fat by gorging on bread, crisps, crumpets and red wine,” she said at the time. “Once I accepted responsibility for my health, weight and lifestyle it made it easier to take control. You don’t have to have a starter, main and pudding.”
Lisa has also been frank concerning her inability to conceive a baby with her musician partner, Al. Three years ago, doctors told her that any IVF treatment would almost certainly end in failure.
“Finding out that I was unlikely to get pregnant was a blow,” she says. “But I refuse to be defined by that. People think women need to have a child to complete themselves, but that just isn’t the case. I feel that I have taken ownership of the situation now. I don’t want to go through years and years of IVF treatment and the stress and pressure that creates.
“We have decided now that we aren’t going to go down that route, and now that we have made that decision, I could not be happier.”
Lisa (44) is celebrating a special milestone this year – her 30th year as an actress.
“I feel so lucky and blessed to have never been out of work,” she reveals. “I have had a phenomenal Dolly Mixture of a career.
“I’m often asked by upcoming actors, especially on social media, what the secret is to a long, busy, creative, successful career. I reply, ‘Don’t go into our industry wanting fame, or to be famous, or if you are vain. Be an actor because you want to keep learning each and every day. Never stop wanting to learn because it’s this knowledge and talent which keeps you real and honest.’ ”
What does she feel is the highlight of her career?
“That’s a really hard choice to make,” she replies. “There have been so many highlights. If I have to choose, though, it’s being part of productions that have won BAFTAs. Emmerdale won one recently, then in 2018, Three Girls – the TV mini-series which was a dramatised version of the events surrounding the Rochdale child abuse sex ring – also won. I feel that one was for my mum who passed away in 2012. Before mum passed, she said, ‘Don’t you dare get a BAFTA once I’ve gone.’
"But then that’s just what happened!”