Emmerdale Charley Webb admits ‘my best friends are there’ in ITV soap update
Emmerdale: Debbie Dingle kisses Joe Tate
Emmerdale favourite Charley Webb has described the soap as ‘always going to be special’ to her, whilst looking back on her stint in the village and teasing an exciting new project.
Through her television work, which began when she was a budding teenage actress, Charley Webb, 37, became a household name amongst millions of Emmerdale viewers as Debbie Dingle in the ITV drama. She featured in almost 2,000 episodes of the programme.
Charley’s last appearance as Debbie in Emmerdale was in 2021. Despite demands from soap fans, Debbie has failed to return to the village for important family moments like the death of Zak Dingle (Steve Halliwell) and her dad, Cain Dingle’s (Jeff Hordley), recent cancer diagnosis.
Following her departure, Charley has featured in television programmes The Last Shadow and Better, alongside performing on stage in Quiz – the theatrical production inspired by the notorious Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? cough controversy, reports Yorkshire Live.
Charley is set to return to the theatre in The Ladies Football Club. She’s been cast in the world premiere stage version of The Ladies Football Club by Stefano Massini. The production will be staged at The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, with performances from Saturday, February 28, through to Saturday, March 28.
The mother-of-three will portray Abigail alongside fellow performers including Jessica Baglow, from Gentleman Jack, and Ellie Leach from Coronation Street. The Ladies Football Club is described as a compelling tale of friendship and community helmed by the acclaimed director Elizabeth Newman.
Taking place during an era when the First World War sent men to the battlefront, the women of Sheffield stepped into factory positions, manufacturing bombs and ammunition.
When they begin playing football during their lunch breaks, audiences will witness how it quickly becomes evident that it’s not merely positions on a factory floor these women are capable of filling – it’s on the football pitch as well.
Discovering unexpected resilience through their newfound passion and camaraderie, they eventually perform before crowds exceeding fifty thousand, all the while oblivious that something is approaching that will blow the whistle on their beautiful game.
Emmerdale legend Charley Webb took a break from rehearsals to reflect on her stint in the beloved Yorkshire soap.
She said, “That period of my life is always going to be so special to me. It was such a huge amount of time and in such formative years, if you like. A lot of my best friends are there – it was always such a fun place to work.
“It is like a family. I know everyone always says that but it is. I’m still so, so close to so many of them. It was just like going to work with so many of your friends.”
Five years on from her Emmerdale exit, Charley confirmed she is still friends with some of her former castmates.
She said: “I live quite close to quite a few of them so I see them a lot. Emma (Atkins), who played my mum (character Charity Dingle), has a little boy who is my godson.
“He’s best friends with my middle one – he’s like a brother to all the kids. They are so close.”
Touching upon her life after Emmerdale, Charley said: “I think I’ve been really lucky with the jobs that I’ve had since leaving. I’ve continuously worked and I feel very blessed.
“It is nice to have the chance to do things which are so different, like something like this set in the early 1900s around the First World War.”