Deena Payne leaving Emmerdale

It’s been announced that Deena Payne is to leave Emmerdale after nearly twenty years in the Yorkshire soap playing village gossip Viv Hope.

It’s been announced that Deena Payne is to leave Emmerdale after nearly twenty years in the Yorkshire soap playing village gossip Viv Hope. Payne joined Emmerdale in 1993 as part of the Windsor family taking over the running of the village post office/shop.

Over the years the Windsor family presence in Emmerdale has dwindled with the departure of Vic Windsor (Alun Lewis) in 1998 the first major departure in the family. Subsequently Scott Windsor (Ben Freeman), Kelly Windsor (Adele Silva) and Donna (Verity Rushworth) have all left the village.

Actress Deena Payne will bow out of Emmerdale within the next few months though details of her exit storyline are being kept under wraps. However, producers on then soap have hinted the exit wiill be at the heart of a ‘huge winter storyline’.

Over the years Viv has been involved in several major storylines such as the death of husband Vic during a raid at the post office and the breakdown of her marriage to Bob (Tony Audenshaw). She also being sent to prison for a time.