A bit of a rough diamond, brassy Diane has been married four times and lived all around the country. But settling in Emmerdale seems to have calmed down her wilder ways, especially when she fell for local farmer Jack Sugden.
You off to a pick-up bar? Wait while I get me slap on, I’ll be right behind yer.
1999 Visits daughter Bernice, the then Woolpack landlady, and causes a few raised eyebrows when she flirts with Eric Pollard and Alan Turner.
2000 Sells up her B&B and buys into a share of the Woolpack with Bernice, moving to Emmerdale fulltime. Shares a kiss with Jack Sugden. Ex-hubby Rodney turns up for Bernice’s wedding to vicar Ashley.
2002 Has a one-night stand with Rodney. Dates builder Mack but soon calls it off with him. Later set up on a blind date with Jack and they become an item.
2004 Sister Val turns up in the village. Accepts a proposal from Jack, but has second thoughts when she discovers she has colon cancer. Jack reassures her and they marry in September. Undergoes an op and is given a colostomy.
2005 Given the all-clear from cancer.
2006 Is nearly killed in the King Development house collapse. Falls out with Woolpack co-owner Louise who sells her share of the pub, and Diane ends up reluctantly running the pub with Val.
Elizabeth was born on 10 August 1949 and had a Norwegian granddad, hence her unusual surname. She grew up an only child in Stockton-on-Tees, Durham. Her mum was a primary school teacher and her dad was a merchant seaman turned solicitor’s clerk.
Elizabeth nearly became a speech therapist, but signed up for a Drama and English teaching course at Manchester Polytechnic instead, although she harboured a passion to be an actress.
After graduating, Elizabeth moved to Liverpool and joined the Everyman repertory company, which had a successful West End run with the play ‘John, Paul, George, Ringo, And... Bert’, where she was spotted by actress Nerys Hughes, who was looking for a replacement for Polly James in her hit seventies sitcom, The Liver Birds. Nerys signed her up to play Carol Boswell, her first TV role, in 1975 and it rocketed her to fame.
After The Liver Birds finished in 1979, Elizabeth went on to do a variety of TV and stage work, including a long run on children’s TV series, T-Bag. She also appeared in a TV adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd, with Jonathan Firth.
