Former Emmerdale star Paula Lane’s ‘nuts’ experience after ITV soap exit

A former Emmerdale star has enjoyed a very chance encounter.

It came as a writer of a TV pilot starring several soap and TV stars found himself bumping into Paula Lane in the most surreal of circumstances. During a routine location scouting exercise he spotted a property that immediately piqued his curiosity due to the name of it, but little did he know a famous TV star would be sitting inside.

Paula Lane, who rose to fame on ITV’s Coronation Street and only left our screens in Emmerdale recently, just so happened to be visiting family in the area when the writer of care-home based comedy drama, Henry House was unwittingly drawn to the property she was staying in due to the house sharing the same name as his Henry House main character.

“We were genuinely scouting for a property for our main character’s family home,” explains Gareth Owain David Thomas. “Her name’s Izzy Orchard and this was Orchard Cottage. So I just thought, perfect.”

But Gareth had absolutely no idea that that decision was about to lead him to another national soap star. Paula, 39, who played Ella Forster in Emmerdale, took the time to talk to Gareth all about Henry House and his future plans to bring in some more household names to further bolster the show, as he and his team prepare to pitch to networks in the very near future. A show that already boasts its fair share of soap stars.

She even took to social media to share the surreal chance encounter from her own point of view, posting. The star, who exited Emmerdale at the start of the year, said: “This was nuts today. What a lovely introduction though @rockinghorsemedia. Talk about serendipity.”

A pilot episode of the star studded Henry House, written and directed by Gareth and produced by Rocking Horse Media, has already been filmed. Former Emmerdale favourites Liam Fox and Bhasker Patel have been involved with the Henry House project.