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An Interview With Deena Payne aka Viv Hope
There is something very spiritual happening in the normally drab rehearsal room at Emmerdale. Candlelight, plush cushions and delicate drapes fill the space to create a distinctly tranquil setting. Not the kind of place you’d associate with Emmerdale’s brash Viv Hope. However, it is the ideal location for the actress who plays her, Deena Payne. As Deena settles down on the cushions, she explains how she became fascinated with the world of alternative therapies.
“I had just started to become more spiritually aware when I went to an exhibition called Mind, Body and Spirit in London. I spotted the essential oils and just made a beeline for them. This was in the early Eighties, when nobody knew much about aromatherapy, but I just loved the idea and immediately wanted to know more about it.”
Intrigued by this new world, Deena applied for a place on an aromatherapy diploma course.
“I was completely taken aback when I was accepted. All they told me was to cut my nails and bring a towel! I took to it like a duck to water, it was brilliant.”
Not that Deena should have been so surprised by her success - after all, it was all predicted as part of her destiny.
“Before I enrolled on the course I decided to visit a medium because I had never been to one. She told me she could see a man with his hands on my back, which meant I could be a healer. Then she talked to a cat, which I couldn’t see!” she adds with a laugh.
“But a week after I went to see her I signed up for the aromatheraphy course.”
And over the years Deena found her skills provided her with the perfect ‘day’ job.
“I’ve been in the acting business for 30 years, and it has actually worked out very well. Practising alternative therapies allows me to meet new people, which is always interesting for an actor. And when I was out of work, instead of working behind a bar until the next acting job came along, I kept this other side of myself going. Even now, cast members will say to me, 'I’ve hurt this, that and the other, can you help me?’
I’m called the white witch because I’m always mixing up lotions and potions!”
Her aromatherapy skills are, in fact, Deena’s third career. As well as work as an actress, in her early years, a love of dance led her to carve out a very successful career on the stage.
“I started out with dancing classes from the age of two, then I took singing and acting classes and went off I went. I did fringe theatre, sang, choreographed, and then moved on to do some TV work, including a part in The Bill - every actor has had a part in The Bill!”
Deena’s musical interests also opened up opportunities for her to tour with a couple of bands.
I was in a musical called Who’s A Lucky Boy with Alan Price from The Animals. When the show came to an end, I asked if he needed any backing singers. There was else coming up and I didn’t want to have to sign on, so I did backing vocals and ended up being in the band for seven years - they were exhausting and fairly crazy days.”
It was 1993 when Deena found herself in Emmerdale, as Viv and the rest of the Windsor family arrived in the village to start a new life away from London. Ten years - and a couple of replacement actors - later and Deena is the only ‘original’ Windsor left in the show.
“The cast come and go and grow so quickly that you tend to thank your lucky stars that you are still here. It’s very strange that Adele Silva, who played Kelly, has gone. She was the one who was here the longest, she joined when she was 12 and I watched her change and blossom into a really lovely-looking young lady. Verity Rushworth, who plays Donna, and I get on so well - if there was ever a child who really was my daughter, it would be her, as she looks so much like me.”
Ten years in soapland means that Viv has been through the emotional mill. She’s been taken hostage, had an affair, suffered the death of her husband, and uncovered a love affair between her son, Scott, and stepdaughter, Kelly. However, over the last few years, a spark has returned to Viv thanks to the arrival of travelling salesman Bob Hope, played by Antony Audenshaw.
“Bob has put a twinkle in her eye and it is great for me as an actor to be able to branch out and do something where she is happy. For a long time she was fairly two-dimensional and was reacting to things and shouting all the time, but now she has found happiness. Despite recent troubled events in the marriage, I think they have got a very strong relationship and they will last.”
However, if the soaps producers had listened to Deena, things may have been very different.
“A few people came to audition for the role of Bob, and I was asked which one I liked. There was particular actor I thought was OK, but another I told them not to pick. That one was Tony, as I must admit I didn’t like him at first. During the audition scene, he reached out to touch my arm and I flinched! I thought, ‘Oh no, it’s his screen test, I can’t possibly do that’ so I very slowly put my arm back so nobody would notice. The day before I went on holiday I was told that they has given the role to Tony and I said, ‘You’re joking - I’m going to have to kiss him!
However, luckily Deena’s fears provided to be unfounded.
“The first scene we did together, we just got on so well. He is such a good, giving actor that it kind of effervesces and we work well as a team. It is a delight to work with him and I suppose this is one time that I am going to have to admit that I was wrong!”
Deena’s other passions are, of course, her partner Steve, and their son William. Steve is a musician with the band The Sweet and the pair met while both working with Alan Price. Steve was also involved in setting up Emmerdale’s band The Woolpackers. William, meanwhile, was just a baby when Deena won the role of Viv.
“I can’t believe I have been in the show so long but when I look at my son, that is all he’s ever known and that’s weird,” she laughs
And William certainly knows a lot about Mummy’s other life.
“He comes with me sometimes to work when I have an early start. I have to be in make-up at seven and breakfast is at six-thirty, so I just get him out of bed and bung his clothes on and take him to wherever we are filming. He doesn’t quite understand why he has to have his breakfast in a lorry, though!
“The best thing about being in a soap is that you don’t have to work a set amount of hours each day so that means I’m able to pick William up from school and I can be at home a lot in the evenings. That has meant so much to me. I’m really lucky and just so happy to be able to do my job and be a mum.”
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