Cover Story; A role in the hay!

Claire King is the sexy lady most blokes would like to go for a roll in the hay with.

For as bed-hopping Kim Tate, she has helped rocket Emmerdale into the TV top five.

But away from Home Farm, how like the scheming superbitch is Claire? "I'm not a bit like Kim off-screen," said the 33-year-old actress.

"I sometimes think she should ease up a bit and be nice to somebody for a change.

"She started off as a normal human being but now she doesn't have many redeeming features. She gets up to things you'd never dare do in real life.

"There's usually some major catastrophe in her life, which makes the part much more interesting to do.

"The hardest scenes are where you just walk into The Woolpack and ask for a drink, there's no real acting involved."

Close encounters with actor Peter Amory, who plays her stepson Chris Tate in the soap, come naturally to Claire - he's her real- life husband! At home in Harrogate, they never talk shop and they're left alone by locals who are used to seeing them around.

But during the tourist season they're stopped for autographs. "I always feel that because Kim's so nasty, there's this pressure to compensate and even if I'm having a bad day, I have to say hello and smile," she says.

"People want to know about the storylines. I have had old ladies wrapping umbrellas around my head in the street before, but that doesn't happen so much now.

"I get a lot of mail from men and they're polite, though years ago they'd start: `Please send me stockings.' But they got the same old photo as everybody else!"

At home, Claire, who relaxes in leggings and sloppy jerseys, is nothing like glamour-queen Kim.

"Oh yes, I lounge around all day in my tiara and silk negligee, spooning caviar!" she laughs. "I can't say I'm very glamorous."

Despite the steamy escapades of Emmerdale's characters, a lot is left to the imagination and Claire prefers it that way. "There's been all the kissing in the stables and stuff but it's not explicitly sexual, going out early in the evening. It's all hinted at and it's up to people's imaginations how they want to fill in the gaps," she says.

"When we did the scene where Frank caught Dave and Kim in bed, we had to look naked, but it was filmed in this derelict house which was freezing.

"We demanded they fill the bed with hot water bottles and underneath we were both wearing leggings and socks!"

While the spiced-up scripts are more fun, Claire has fond memories of the days of "old fogeys and farming types".

She says: "You didn't have as many lines to learn! And I liked the animal aspect of it - I got the role because I'm a fairly accomplished horsewoman."

Owner of two racehorses herself, Claire doesn't have as much time as she'd like to ride around her beloved Yorkshire countryside on horseback, but the former amateur jockey still likes to keep in touch with the racing world.

She says the rugged, rural shots, filmed just outside Leeds, are Emmerdale's strong point. "Most of the other soaps are set in cities, so people love to see the countryside here."

The infamous air crash storyline was a turning point for Emmerdale, touching on a sensitive subject and thinning out the cast.

But it put Emmerdale in the headlines and since then, the ratings have shot up and it now has twice the viewers of Brook- side and is closing fast on EastEnders and Coronation Street. An amazing 14.5 million viewers are now tuning in each week.

But Claire still has her feet firmly planted on the ground - "You've got to remember that 92 per cent of actors have been out of work in their careers."

An avid Brookside fan, Claire was embarrassed when she first joined Emmerdale six years ago.

"I felt I had to justify being in a soap that was the butt of jokes," she says.

"People used to deny they watched it, although they'd know all about the plot. But I decided it was just a job and I now think Emmerdale is the tops when it comes to quality of acting."

She believes British soaps have a sense of style that's missing from their Australian counterparts, even though actors are given a raw deal.

"People look down their noses at soap actors, but we work hard, learning lines continually. So we should be given more credit," she says.

And she admires the Brits who made their mark in the hey-day of glitzy American soaps like Dynasty and Dallas, adding: "They always play the nasty characters because no U.S. actor wants to be seen in a bad light. But they're the best parts!"

Before she moved into TV, Claire was involved in the music industry, as a singer and manager, and ran her own record label, Visual Records.

She appeared in promo videos for Elvis Costello and rock band Zodiac Mindwarp, both produced by her chum Adrian Edmondson, who also landed her a role in The Comic Strip movie Eat The Rich.

That gave her a taste for acting.

"I thought, this is money for old rope! Then I got the job with Emmerdale and suddenly I had to learn hundreds of lines. It wasn't as easy as I first thought!"

The dull days of sheep-dip are long gone as events hot up at Home Farm.

So Claire, the farm fatale, will continue to make hay while the sun shines.