Long before Emmerdale had Michelle Hardwick’s Vanessa Woodfield, it had Zoe Tate.
Zoe was played by Leah Bracknell for 16 years on the long-running ITV soap and is often remembered as the show’s first ever lesbian character. Fans will remember Zoe first appeared on our screens in 1989 and was the sister of Chris and the only daughter of Frank and Jean. Leah’s first major storyline in the Dales as Zoe was when he revealed she was gay in 1993.
The drama didn’t stop there for Leah as her character featured prominently in other storylines including the deaths of her father Frank (Norman Bowler) and brother Chris (Peter Amory) and the betrayal of her stepmother Kim (Claire King). Perhaps one of Zoe’s more memorable storylines was her affair with her brother’s wife, Charity Dingle - a storyline, which Leah previously said, she was the proudest of portraying, according to Leeds Live.
