Emmerdale star Sammy Winward has teased that her exit storyline is the most exciting she’d been involved with on the soap.

Sammy has starred as Katie Sugden in the ITV show for 13 years, but announced last year that she was planning to leave and her final storyline has seen her keen to uncover brother-in-law Robert’s cheating and lying.

Katie was previously involved in a love triangle with Robert and her husband Andy, but now that she and Andy have reunited and married again, her obsession with Robert has been causing even more tension.

Emmerdale
Katie and Andy have a dramatic time to come (ITV)

She said of the exit plot: “I think it’ll change quite a lot of characters’ lives for a while, which is always exciting. It’s one of the most dramatic storylines I’ve been involved in, especially emotionally. It’s been really good to film.

“Leaving Emmerdale is not a decision I have made lightly. I have had the most amazing 13 years and I’m going to miss everyone terribly. I have loved every second of playing Katie, but no-one becomes an actor to play just one role, so now it’s time for me to move on.

“I don’t want to give away anything about how Katie goes but it’s certainly going to be dramatic.”

Emmerdale
The caravan goes up in flames (ITV)

One of the scenes involves Katie and Andy’s caravan being blown up, and Sammy said of filming: “There was a huge explosion and we weren’t quite ready for it. Me and Kelvin [Fletcher, who plays Andy] were both saying that we hate cheesy reactions to an explosion like gasps and silly faces.

“We were trying to plan the scene so that Kelvin would cover me and our faces wouldn’t really be in shot, but then when the explosion happened, it was so big and loud that our reactions were completely natural because it was so shocking. We were genuinely quite scared.

“Those scenes were filmed on a night shoot in the moors. It was pretty cold and the blaze was the last shot, so we had to rely on lots of hand warmers and hot water bottles beforehand that night.”