Emmerdale star Charlotte Bellamy reveals how her character Laurel’s romance with drug dealer Ray is a car crash waiting to happen .
Blinded by love, widow Laurel Thomas is convinced Emmerdale’s arch villain Ray Walters is the one. Oblivious to his drug dealing, hostage taking and modern slavery, she is convinced he is a total sweetheart.
Even actress Charlotte Bellamy, who has played Laurel for 23 years, is aghast at her naivety. Like the viewers, she knows it’s a question of when, rather than if she discovers the depths of Ray’s depravity.
Charlotte, 52, who has been frantically leafing through her scripts looking for answers, says: “I have been on the edge of my seat! I have literally been getting the script and going ‘oh my goodness, what will happen? Will this last?’
“This storyline is brilliant because the audience has been hating Ray’s character, but now it is starting to get clever. Suddenly, they are seeing a different side. He’s a lost soul and I could be wrong, but I predict the audience will start rooting for him.
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“This is because he is very charming to Laurel and he is genuinely falling in love with her. He loves the warmth, tenderness and security that her life offers him. It’s mutual though. She is falling for a version of him she thinks is real. It’s a case of true love.”
But looming disaster threatens the love story between Laurel and Ray, according to Charlotte.
She continues: “Of all the time I have been here – and I have been here 23 years now – I think Ray’s mother, Celia, is one of the worst villains we have ever had.”
“It’s on another level and this love story is like waiting for a car crash to happen. The audience want the best for Laurel, but she keeps having heartbreak.”
“Joe (Absolom) is brilliant playing Ray. He is so believable and Celia goes to another level once she realises he is in love.”
In real life, Charlotte is happily married to Mungo Denison, a former TV producer, who now works in company management. Together since she was 18, she says she has never been gaslit, or lied to – like Laurel.
She laughs: “Well I bl**dy hope not!”
Charlotte, who has three children – Sunnie, 21, Herbie, 18, and Boo, 16, with Mungo – relishes her happy homelife, where she can enjoy a peaceful time away from her hectic work schedule.
Looking forward to Christmas, she says: “We will be having all the family round, lots of food and I will do lots of cooking.”
“It is nice when everyone sits down together and all the grandparents come.”
But there will be no post-dinner charades, instead, her family will be playing the racket game padel.
“We are going to have a padel tournament,” she continues. “We all love it. My mother-in-law is 85, but she is on the tennis court every day and my husband and kids play it a lot, too. It will be lots of fun.”
And her children will not be tuning in to watch their mum on Emmerdale on Christmas Day.
She says: “Oh gosh, no, they don’t watch me in the soap!
“I’ve been in it that long and it’s all they have known.
“Technically, they have all been in Emmerdale, given I worked while I was pregnant. But, apart from once when my eldest spotted my picture on a Sky TV guide screen, it’s never been on their radar.
“What’s great now is that younger people are watching the soap on YouTube. Funny skits and edits are also making it on to TikTok. It’s brilliant that Emmerdale can now be accessed on these platforms.”
While Charlotte is a better judge of men, she does share some of Laurel’s personality traits – as they are both very maternal and warm.
Charlotte – who joined the soap in 2002 – says never in a million years did she ever expect to still be here. It’s the reason why, Charlotte confides, she remains so appreciative.
“It’s lovely playing someone so wholesome,” she admits. “Laurel is an alcoholic, an addict and she isn’t perfect, but she does deserve to find happiness, which is why she is so besotted with Ray.
“But I am so appreciative of the storylines, I am given and to still be part of the soap. “Sometimes when you work with new people like Joe and Jaye Griffiths, who plays Celia, you see it through their eyes for the first time.”
She says the soap newcomers have made her appreciate the beauty of the Emmerdale village Christmas lights and the joy of eating lunch together as a cast. She says: “I feel lucky.”
She also feels very fortunate to have played such a brilliant character for so long – something she never takes for granted.
“A tree could fall on Laurel at the bus stop at any time,” she explains. “It’s so important to remember this. We are just little pawns and it will always roll on.”
As for her latest storyline, Charlotte says viewers will see them grow closer and enjoy a wonderful Christmas Day together.
“They both really fall for each other,” she says. “On Christmas Day, they play family charades.”
But, never having known a close family, Ray doesn’t even know how to play. Seeing the couple falling deeply in love, Charlotte says: “It is total euphoria.”
She won’t divulge when Laurel will find out about Ray’s secret life as a drug dealer, but praises Joe for his convincing performance, as the villain shows his softer side.
“We’ve been so lucky to have Joe come to Emmerdale,” she says. “He works, works, works and it’s been so lovely to work with him.”
Charlotte fears that discovering Ray’s true wickedness will be an insurmountable blow for her character. “I think she will not be able to comprehend it,” she says. “If you are with someone and you feel like you are totally gaslit, your mind goes into complete chaos. It is like being lied to at the highest level. And then the fact Rhona, Marlon and April knew too.
“How will it unfold? How will she find out? These are questions I hope the audience will start to ask too. But they will also, I think, want him to be saved. He wants to redeem himself and that is what is so clever about the scripts.”
As well as playing out Laurel’s doomed love affair, Charlotte is looking forward to the forthcoming Corriedale episode in January – when there will be a crossover between Coronation Street and Emmerdale.
She says of Emmerdale: “There are a lot of characters who have a lot of history.
“People are really invested in them and the way the stories are weaved in is like a jigsaw.
“But what I love about Emmerdale is the fact it is always trying to find new ways of telling stories. I really do believe there is a place for a soap and the great thing about Emmerdale is it is always asking ‘how can we move with the times?’”.
Source: Mirror
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