Daisy Campbell recently announced that she was leaving Emmerdale after 13 years playing Amelia Spencer – a role she first took on when she was only eight years old.

She explained that it hadn’t been her decision to leave, but that she ‘totally got’ the decision to axe a character who no longer has many strong ties in the village. ‘Amelia isn’t part of the Dingles, her dad has left, Samson (Sam Hall) has gone now and she doesn’t have any family. There is nowhere to take Amelia and I understand that,’ she said.

Daisy’s time in Emmerdale has seen her taking on some high-profile storylines, with Amelia memorably giving birth to her baby as the storm which took several characters’ lives raged in 2022.

Emotional scenes the following year saw Amelia’s dad Dan (Liam Fox) imprisoned after he punched and killed a man who’d been stalking his daughter.

Recent episodes have seen Amelia getting into an ill-advised relationship with Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper)’s abuser, Tom King (James Chase). Viewers know that Tom is only using Amelia as another way to get at Belle and is playing on her vulnerability and trusting personality.

Daisy explained that she gets a lot of comments from viewers saying that her character is ‘annoying’ for not seeing through Tom. She told us that she understands the audience being frustrated with Amelia for being taken in by Tom’s lies when so many people are warning her what he’s really like, but she thinks it’s realistic in terms of the story. 

‘I think people forget, it’s a story we’re trying to tell, and he’s such a manipulator, he knows what he’s doing, and obviously he’s done it to Belle so he can do it to someone else,’ she reasoned. ‘And because Amelia is so much younger, I mean she’s only 18, she is very vulnerable.’ 

Emmerdale has been careful to portray the coercive control storyline with Tom as realistically as possible and Daisy said she felt that Tom using Amelia in this way was also a realistic approach. 

‘When people comment about it being frustrating, I’m so glad you’re getting that frustration, because so many women and men go through this,’ she pointed out. ‘You know when your family see it before you do? So I can see it’s been frustrating, but that means we’re doing our job, right? So that’s good.’ 

At the same time as understanding why her character has been taken in by Tom, Daisy also wishes that her character could see through Tom’s manipulation. 

‘It does frustrate me in some areas, because I’m like, “Oh, come on, Amelia, you’ve got a kid now, he’s older, come on. Get the cogs turning because you should know,” but I think the main thing is she’s trying to protect Esther over herself.

‘Obviously, we’ll see that play out a little bit more later on, but yeah, it can be frustrating seeing it. She’s always been head over heels for boys a lot older than her, for Noah (Jack Downham) and Tom. But it can be frustrating.’ 

As Daisy prepares to leave, she’s grateful that her final storyline has been so hard-hitting and has enjoyed working with James Chase and Eden Taylor-Draper on this story.

‘I feel like me and Eden have grown up in the show together,’ she said. ‘She came in a couple of years before I did, so we’ve always been close, but never worked together. So having this was really cool.

‘James has had to play this horrible character for a year and a half. But I had to do some really, really intense scenes with him, and I think because my character’s so in love with him, I had to put loads onto him. So that was kind of out my comfort zone.

‘But it’s all good stuff, but it’s been really nice working with them. It’s been a challenge, but it’s been really good.’