***WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE ITVX EPISODE OF ***
Sophie Powles has made a temporary return to as Holly Barton, in a new storyline involving her on-screen mother, Moira Dingle.
In Wednesday’s (November 20) episode, available on ITVX, Moira (played by Natalie J Robb) undergoes brain surgery amid health struggles, leading to a surprise reappearance of her late daughter Holly.
Long-time viewers will recall that Holly tragically died in 2016 following a fatal drug relapse. Sophie returned to film poignant scenes where Holly appears in Moira’s dream during her life-saving operation.
Sophie has had stints on the soap since 2009 but made her last appearance in 2016 until now. Besides acting, Sophie is also a mother and recently reunited with her family for a weekend getaway.
Other stars such as Emma Atkins (), Zoe Henry (Rhona Ghoskirk) and Jeff Hordley () were also present, with the group donning 80s attire for the event. Outside of , Sophie has appeared in The Long Shadow, Britannia High, Holby City and Dalziel and Pascoe.
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Holly Barton died in 2016 after suffering a heroin overdose (Image: ITV)
Discussing the brain surgery storyline, Natalie J Robb, who portrays Moira on the show, cautioned: “There could be some slight personality change, it could be that she just faces things differently because she’s been faced with such an ordeal.
She added, “She chooses to deal with things maybe a bit differently because life is so precious and it was nearly taken away from her. I think if anyone loses a loved one or a dog, which I did in February, the grief was overwhelming and it really makes you go ‘Right, you’ve got to really appreciate every day as you live it.'”
Natalie confessed that filming was “emotionally exhausting” for her. ” for her. Emotionally it was exhausting because of the journey of it, feeling the fear of it, going through some of the earlier scenes between Cain and Moira which were lovely where she is really scared, there was a lot of scenes because we shoot a lot of things together,” she explained.
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Sophie Powles is best known for playing Holly (Image: ITV)
“We did a lot of the emotional stuff in one or two days so you’re aagh after that. But it is exhausting but it’s also rewarding when you see it go out and you know that you’ve done a good job, that’s the main thing.”
airs weeknights on ITV1 at 7.30pm and available to stream from 7am on ITVX