Leyla's tarty sister is about to stir up Emmerdale

Leyla's tarty sister is about to stir up Emmerdale
Leyla's tarty sister is about to stir up Emmerdale (Image credit: ITV)

Emmerdale newcomer Natalie Anderson is having a ball getting tarted up for her role as Alicia Gallagher, the trashy older sister of Leyla Harding. The actress, who previously starred in Wicked in the West End, said she is wearing lots of 'special bras', explaining: "There's a lot of cleavage, which isn't all mine. "Wearing all the padded bras is really fun. I showed my husband a picture and he said, 'I don't get to see them! Where do they come from?'" Alicia added: "I'm really enjoying myself. The character is just so much fun to play because she's so different from me." Larger-than-life Alicia storms into Emmerdale village to order Leyla (Rokhsaneh Ghawam-Shahidi) to stay away from their mother's funeral, but the reason for the family rift will emerge later in the show. Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.