Emmerdale star Rosie Bentham has spoken for the first time about the return of her character Gabby Thomas’s mum Bernice Blackstock.

Bernice hasn’t been seen in the village since the end of 2023, but she returns next week for a brief stint in time for her daughter’s wedding to Vinny.

It initially looks like Bernice will be a no-show, but she has a change of heart and shows up in style on Gabby’s special day.

Naturally, Bernice is bringing big drama, and she hints that Gabby is keeping a major secret that makes her impending nuptials a rather bad idea.

With Vinny also having doubts, having felt conflicted about his sexuality in recent weeks and months, will their wedding go ahead, or will it be plagued by chaos?

Rosie explained what Bernice’s exciting return will look like in an exclusive interview with Soap Scoop, the weekly podcast from Inside Soap with star chats every Tuesday.

“I love Sam Giles coming back, we have such good fun,” she smiled. “I mean, as usual with Bernice – it’s going to be a big entrance, isn’t it? She’s going to go headfirst into the drama, which is nice because that is just typical Bernice.

“She’s got some tension already with Gabby, some stuff that she needs to talk to her about, so it’ll be interesting to see what that is and how that affects the wedding day.”

Talking about how she’d love Bernice’s return to be more than just a fleeting visit, Rosie said: “It’d be nice if she came back long term and relaunched the salon. She’s always a leader in the village gossip, with Nicola, so it’d be nice if that could return.

“But I think as well, her character coming back would bring lots of laughs into the village and big, over-the-top reactions about everything. I think she’s a great addition. When she’s around, it’s always chaos but good fun.”