As Emmerdale’s newest villain, actress Joanne Mitchell readily admits she can’t believe her luck. But despite her real-life husband Dominic Brunt also being on the soap – aka the legendary Paddy Kirk – their sons aren’t too impressed.
“The boys are really laid back but they haven’t watched me in the soap yet,” she says of her teenage offspring.
“To be honest, they haven’t ever watched Dom either.
“It’s uncool that Mum and Dad are actors! They have grown up with us being actors and they are not interested – but I think that is healthy.
“When I was a kid, it was a big deal if you met someone who was an actor but there is YouTube, TikTok and Netflix and besides, they are really into their farming, which is far cooler.”
It’s the third time Joanne has returned to Emmerdale to play Sandra Flaherty, the twisted mother of Liv.
But this time, the 50-year-old, who has also appeared in passing as a detective and midwife in the ITV soap, is sticking around for the next few months at least.
And how does it feel to be working side by side with hubby Dom every day?
“We don’t actually see each other!” the actress confides.
“We are in totally different blocks and so it’s like we aren’t working together.
“I have seen him once in the building since I started filming in May!
“But Dom is very supportive and it’s great for me to understand his day-to-day job more too. You can have a healthy respect from afar but when you are in there doing the same thing, it’s a chance to really understand the whole process of making a soap. It’s a very finely tuned machine which works incredibly well.”
As far removed as she possibly can be from her character, the warm, jovial, and likeable actress paints a happy picture of life in the Mitchell/Brunt household, in stark contrast to her fractured on-screen relationship with daughter, Liv.
“We are really close and we do all the usual boy things together like rugby,” reveals Joanne.
The couple both tend to steer away from the glitzy parties that being on a high-profile TV soap can offer, preferring instead to spend quality time together at home as well as working on personal drama projects of their own.
They set up their own film company and have just produced a horror comedy movie, Wolf Manor, for the London Frightfest Festival that takes place in Leicester Square from August 25-29. The movie stars Four Weddings and a Funeral actor James Fleet.
“We do enjoy doing things together and because we are married, it’s easy to be honest with each other with feedback,” she says.
“We’ve got such mutual respect and I’ve always liked characters who are slightly off the wall. I definitely find myself veering towards the darker side, which is why I am loving being in Emmerdale right now.”
Looking far younger than her 50 years, Joanne – who has also starred in Coronation Street, Waterloo Road, Doctors and as Lady Macbeth on stage – says she has no plans to slow down. If anything, she says, hitting her half century has given her a new lease of life.
“I suppose you are as young as you feel,” she says. “I sometimes think that back in my mum and grandmother’s days when you hit the 50s, you were ready to retire but now I feel like I have got far too much energy.
“I feel excited about so many things and I think now our kids are slightly older and they can do their own thing, like put a pizza in the oven, then it gives you a new-found freedom – which I am definitely trying to embrace.”
The star has only been on air for a couple of weeks playing scheming, Sandra, and already horrified fans have taken to social media to label her character “trailer trash” after she fleeced her daughter out of £4,000 by pretending a mystery loan shark called Terry was after her, only to later reveal she was actually in cahoots with him.
And now as Sandra steps up her plans to snare as much cash as she can from the Dingles, next targeting unsuspecting Mandy by stealing cash from her salon, Joanne predicts viewers will be in even more uproar.
But the person she feels most sorry for is her husband, in case fans give him stick when the couple are out and about near their Yorkshire home.
“Poor Dom and Paddy!” Joanne jokingly exclaims. “Dom is really going to get it in the neck isn’t he?
“But it’s so much fun playing a villain and I am having a blast.
“Every time I read another script, I think ‘OMG, no it can’t get any worse’. But it does. It is going to get much worse.
“Sandra is awful. She is damaged, an opportunist and her objective is to get as much cash as she can. She has no filter.
“I tried to think the other day what Paddy would think of Sandra and I know he would give her the widest of berths.”
She starts laughing, saying: “But everyone loves a villain don’t they?
“They pretend to hate them but it is the best role you can land as an actress because it is not you.
“I am seriously not like her at all and she is so different to me but that’s what makes it even more fun.”
The actress says she doesn’t want to spoil the plot by revealing too much about what happens next – but says nobody in the Dales is safe from devious Sandra.
“She is not going to stop until she gets what she wants,” warns Joanne.
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“She will take whatever avenue she needs to take and when she sees cash lying in Mandy’s tip tin, she thinks, ‘Right, I will have that then’.
“But Sandra has got her eyes on other prizes within the village too – vulnerable men particularly. She won’t stop and then there is the whole thing to explore with Terry, who cropped up as the loan shark, too.
“You do feel he has got something on her. It’s that kind of Nancy/Bill Sykes thing going on. They are bad for each other but it’s great to watch.”
And the best thing about being on the soap, Joanne adds, is the chance to share the screen with good friends such as Lisa Riley.
Lisa attended her wedding to Dom in 2003 and the trio have been the best of buddies for years.
It was Dom and Joanne who were two of the first people Lisa confided in when she decided to return to Emmerdale in 2019.
“It’s been a blast working together with Lisa,” says Joanne. “We have such a laugh together but what is great about Lisa is as soon as she walks on the set, she is Mandy.
“Sandra enjoys riling Mandy but they both have a troubled history.”
She smiles, and then adds: “I am loving life right now and grabbing it all whilst I can. I feel incredibly lucky to be working down the road from where we live, working with great people and playing such a nutty character. What more could you want?”
- Emmerdale is on every weekday at 7.30pm. You can download catch up episodes on the ITV Hub.
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