Emmerdale actress Lisa Riley has promised more "vulnerable" scenes for her character Mandy Dingle in an upcoming storyline.
Mandy is set to run into ex Paul (Reece Dinsdale) in new scenes set to air next week, and it seems it will "open up a massive can of worms" for her.
"Someone said to me many moons ago, there's a Mandy Dingle on everyone's street, and I think that's the most beautiful thing to say," Lisa explained to Digital Spy and other media of why she loves playing the character.
"She always says what people are thinking, there's no nonsense with her. She comes across sometimes as a manipulator but she’s not, she's got such a big heart – she's a survivor, she'll do anything for her family, and if it means telling a few porky pies along the way, which she does, she'll do it because she wants to survive, and more often than not she has done.
"But what's going to be so nice is we're now going to open a massive can of worms of her vulnerable side, which people love.
"They love the fact that she's funny, she's camp, she was in your face, but God she could make you cry. And we're going to open that can of worms again."
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The storyline will see Mandy lie about Vinny's whereabouts during her meeting with Paul in order to get rid of him, Lisa explaining that she does this to protect Vinny rather than herself.
"With Mandy, as always, she'll play bravado, as she does with anything," Lisa continued.
"Lydia keeps saying: 'People do change Mandy…' And Mandy keeps going, 'you don’t know him, you don't know him like I do'. And on the hen do she says over and over, 'you don’t know Paul Ashdale like I do'. So that's where we're at."
As for Mandy's future, Lisa teased: "We're definitely finding new things in the character. When I joined, our executive producer Jane [Hudson] knew what she wanted — she's so clever and it was all leading to this.
"Stories have to go somewhere, you want to be on a long motorway and that's where we have been. It's going to keep continuing and there's more layers to it. But I'm really happy playing Mandy at the moment and long may it last."
Emmerdale currently airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7pm on ITV.
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