Emmerdale’s Wendy Posner actress ‘saved’ by phone call after death of soap star husband

Emmerdale’s Wendy Posner actress Susan Cookson has shared how her acting career was ‘saved’ by a single phone call following the tragic death of her soap star husband

Emmerdale actress Susan Cookson has shared how she was “saved” by a phone call following the death of her soap star husband.

The Wendy Posner star was ready to give up on her career all together after her Coronation Street actor husband Malcolm Scates sadly died. She was set to take on retirement, when she received a phone call out of the blue. Susan was offered the role of nurse Wendy in the ITV soap, just as she was driving to meet a nursing manager for advice on how to retrain in the profession.

“I was at a bit of a crossroads in my life through one thing and another and I decided that I wanted a more regular job. I started to think about changing careers and going into nursing,” she told The Mirror. “My husband, who is sadly no longer with us, had been very poorly and I’d nursed him. And I’d played a lot of doctors and nurses over the years, so it was a career I knew a bit about. I was in my car, about 10 minutes away from this meeting, when my phone went. It was Emmerdale producer Jane Hudson. I worked with her many moons ago on Casualty, but I’d not spoken to her for years.

Susan explained: “She said to me: ‘Look, I’m going to cut to the chase, we’ve got a new character and there’s nobody I’d rather play it than you. I know you’d be perfect for it. Do you want to come and live in the village with us? Do you want to have a think about it? And I said: ‘No, I don’t need to, the answer is yes!’ And then she added: ‘Oh, and by the way, she’s a nurse…'”