Deena Payne let down with Emmerdale exit

Deena Payne feels "let down" with the way she was written out of 'Emmerdale'.

The actress - who had played Viv Hope in the ITV1 soap for 18 years - was hoping for a huge dramatic exit, but ended up being "disappointed" with her final scenes, which saw her alter-ego falling asleep on the sofa and dying in a fire.

She said: "I was very disappointed with my departure. And I think the viewers will be, too. Having followed Viv for so long and travelled with her on her ups and downs, I think they'd want a better build-up so they could really get into it and give her a good send-off.

"It's a bit of an anti-climax after being told that you're going to have one of the biggest storylines that soap has ever seen, but for my character it wasn't at all. The big storyline is the fire and how people get everyone out.

"And quietly, behind the scenes, Viv just gets burned to death. Without saying a word. The easiest acting I've done in 18 years. You can't be in a soap forever. But I feel let down by the way Viv's been written out."

The 56-year-old star was also disappointed with Viv's funeral, as her remains are sent back down south rather than the post mistress getting the huge send-off she thought the character deserved.

Deena added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "If they had to kill me off, they could at least have given me a nice funeral befitting Viv, instead of being shunted out of the Dales."