Payne: 'I had a lovely year off'

Emmerdale returnee Deena Payne has revealed that she loved every minute of her year's break from the show and became "very protective" over her time.

The 54-year-old, who plays postmistress Viv Hope in the rural ITV soap, returned to filming last month following a 12-month respite period from the show's intensive filming schedule.

Her comeback scenes aired during last night's episode.

Speaking of her time off, she said on This Morning: "I had a lovely year off... After 16 years I was very protective over my time, nobody could take it away from me and I only did want I wanted to do. It was fantastic!"

She joked: "I did find that I had a laundry basket in my hand most of the time... but I just wanted to be mum. My son was just seven months old when I started Emmerdale and he's 17 in September!

"I just did what I wanted to do [during my break] and saw friends - not as many as I wanted actually - time just slipped by very quickly. I supported my other half in his project, too."

She went on to explain: "He's a musician - it's classical music done in his rock version with performers and that's where I came in, I auditioned some ballet dancers."

Last week, Payne's screen husband Tony Audenshaw (Bob Hope) admitted that he struggled at work during her year away.

> Payne praises 'fantastic' Dales co-stars