Emmerdale star Charley Webb reveals exciting new role away from soaps

Emmerdale star Charley Webb is swapping the Dales for centre stage as she prepares to take on her first theatre role.

Charley is best known to viewers as Debbie Dingle, a role she played from 2002 until 2021 when she decided to step away from the soap. Although she hasn't returned to reprise the role of Debbie, she's got an exciting new character to play.

Taking to Instagram, Charley revealed she'll be playing the role of Diana Ingram in the stage adaptation of Quiz, which tells the story of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire? cheating scandal that shocked the nation.

In her post, she wrote: "I’ve been so excited to announce this. I’ll be making my stage debut in Quiz as Diana Ingram, written by the amazing @misterjamesgraham We’re opening in @chichesterft on Friday 22nd September and we’ll be going on tour for 9 weeks to some amazing theatres. Very nervous but very excited. Link in my bio. Who’s coming?

Charley will be joined by Rory Bremner, Lewis Reeves, Mark Brenton, Marc Antolin, Sukh Ojla, and Leo Wringer in the upcoming production, which kicks off in September at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

It will then be touring the country for 9 weeks including Newcastle's Theatre Royal, Glasgow's King Theatre, and The Alexandra in Birmingham.

The Quiz stage play is written by James Graham, who is also known for his work on Tammy Faye, Finding Neverland, and Dear England. It originally debuted in 2017 and is now back for another round.

In addition to this, Quiz was adapted into a three-part ITV drama series in 2020 starring Matthew Macfadyen as Major Ingram and Sian Clifford as his wife Diana, the role that Charley is taking on in this play.

The adaptation also saw Good Omens season 2 star Michael Sheen playing presenter Chris Tarrant and he was praised for his "eerily accurate" portrayal by impressed fans.