Woefully underused Ella starting to become more interesting – just as she’s leaving Emmerdale

Ella Forster joined Emmerdale in 2024 and we were absolutely thrilled that the brilliant Paula Lane would be back on our screens after her much-loved...
Carena Crawford
By Carena Crawford

Ella Forster joined Emmerdale in 2024 and we were absolutely thrilled that the brilliant Paula Lane would be back on our screens after her much-loved stint in Coronation Street as Kylie Platt.

And we weren’t disappointed – at first.

Spunky Ella was a great addition to the Emmerdale cast. Fiesty and knowing her own mind, she had so much promise.

Ella Forster’s big secret drops in Emmerdale

We knew Ella was hiding something, after all, who arrives in Emmerdale without a secret? But we didn’t know what.

She settled into a job at the doctor’s and a relationship with Liam Cavanagh (despite us all knowing he belonged with Chas Dingle), but then strange things started to happen. She didn’t want her photo in the local news and she was visiting an elderly lady we had no idea about.

Eventually her secret was out – she had killed her best friend when she was a child and had been in prison for it.

Liam dropped her like a hot potato and the village turned their backs on her. Only one person gave her the time of day: Cain Dingle. We saw a spark. It came to nothing.

In fact, that’s really where Ella has gone since in Emmerdale: nowhere, doing nothing.

Ella’s exit looms

We know Paula Lane is leaving the soap. She was reported to be finishing filming in February. So her exit is coming soon. And now, next week, she’s started to get interesting again.

After months of moping over Liam, not adding much else, she is finally doing something – just as she’s about to leave.

It felt like Emmerdale didn’t know who they wanted Ella to be: a killer who was trying to redeem herself and live a normal life or a psychopath determined to make misery. They needed to nail their colours to the mast and run with it.

But they never did. Instead, Ella faded into the background. A character with so much promise and an actress with so much talent was wasted.

What a shame she’s leaving because she could have been one of Emmerdale’s greats.

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