Bernice Thomas

Bernice Blackstock (also Thomas and White) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'', played by Samantha Giles. She made her first on screen appearance on 25 November 1998. In September 2012, it was announced Giles had reprised her role and Bernice returned on 20 November 2012 after over eight years away from the programme. In September 2019, Giles announced her departure from the series, with her final scenes airing in November 2019. In April 2021, it was announced that Giles would be returning to the soap, with her return scenes airing on 27 May 2021.

Storylines

1998–2004

Bernice arrives in the village and finds work as a barmaid at The Woolpack. Initially, she does not like Tricia Stokes (Sheree Murphy), but after they discover their partners – Gavin Ferris ( Robert Beck) and Jason Kirk ( James Carlton) – are having an affair, they become good friends. In April 1999, it is revealed that Bernice, originally from down south, came to Leeds by closing her eyes and pointing at a map. The reason - she left her husband Anthony after finding him in bed with another man. Bernice calls off her engagement to Gavin, who was unfaithful with her friend, Stella Jones (Stephanie Schonfield). She then becomes the landlady of The Woolpack thanks to a bequest from the guilt-ridden Stella. Bernice begins a relationship with the local vicar, Ashley. After getting Bishop George's ( Peter Cartwright) blessing, they marry on Christmas Day. Bernice is given away by her mother, Diane, even though her father, Rodney (Patrick Mower), is in attendance.

Bernice falls pregnant but miscarries. In her grief, she lashes out at Ashley and he takes a temporary job away from the village as he feels unable to help her. Bernice, however, feels abandoned and begins an affair with Carlos but this is complicated when Bernice discovers she is pregnant again but doesn't know who the father is. Bernice's half-sister, Nicola, arrives in the village and begins dating Carlos. She is clearly keener on him than he is on her but they later announce that they are getting married and expecting a baby but on her hen night, Nicola admits that she is not pregnant but felt it was the only way to get Carlos to settle down with her. Bernice makes Nicola tell Carlos the truth and ,in revenge for Nicola's lies, Carlos tells her that he and Bernice are together and he could be the father of her baby. Nicola promptly tells the village about this, devastating Ashley, and he asks her to move out. Bernice, feeling guilty for hurting Ashley, tries to make amends but Ashley is not interested and during another argument, they realise Bernice is in labour, so he takes her to hospital where she has a daughter who she names Gabby (Annelise Manojlovic). Bernice hopes Carlos is Gabby's father but a paternity test reveals she is Ashley's child, leading Ashley and Bernice to reconcile. However, Bernice's doubts about her marriage, in addition to her postnatal depression, cause more problems between the couple. After Gabby's christening, Bernice tells Ashley that she does not love him any more. Finding living in Emmerdale too difficult, Bernice takes a job on a cruiseliner, leaving Gabby with Ashley and the couple get divorced off-screen.

Bernice returns in 2004 to attend Tricia's funeral. Now living in Brighton, she tells her father that she wants Gabby to live with her but when she goes to discuss the idea with Ashley, she sees how close he and Gabby are and realises that it would be unfair to take Gabby away. Bernice returns to Brighton, leaving Ashley and Diane unaware of her intentions. Bernice gets engaged to her partner, Charlie. They get married and she gives birth to another daughter who she names Diane, after her mother.

2012–2019

Bernice returns to the village to see Diane and admits that her marriage to husband Charlie is over. Her ex-husband Ashley asks Bernice what her intentions are towards their daughter Gabby and she states that she wants to spend more time with her. Ashley and his wife Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) tell Bernice that they need to set some ground rules, particularly when Bernice asks Laurel to take a back seat, much to Ashley and Laurel's anger as Laurel has played a much bigger part in Gabby's upbringing than Bernice. Diane and Rodney later learn that Bernice has been having an affair. They confront her and Bernice reveals that she is in love with a man named Steve and she is waiting for him to leave his wife. Bernice's half-sister Nicola takes matters into her own hands and informs Steve's wife about her husband's relationship with Bernice and she throws him out, so he joins Bernice in the village. The only thing that Bernice is now unhappy about is that Charlie is awkward about allowing her access to their daughter so she goes to visit him, hoping to persuade him to be more reasonable. Bernice becomes Acting landlady of The Woolpack working alongside Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) while Diane is away in Brighton. Diane returns weeks later to inform everyone that she is moving to Australia and is selling her share of The Woolpack. Bernice has high hopes of buying Diane's share and becoming landlady again as does Chas. Diane eventually reveals that she has decided to stay and takes The Woolpack off the market dashing Bernice's dreams of owning the pub again.

In October 2013, Bernice, along with many other villagers including Diane and Nicola, are held hostage in the Woolpack by Cameron Murray (Dominic Power). He orders for Bernice to give him the pub's keys, and if she threatens him in any way, he will shoot and kill Diane with a gun he has stolen. Bernice, Diane, Nicola and the others are all eventually released by Cameron, but he keeps Chas and Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb) hostage. In 2014, Bernice is stunned to hear that Diane has slept with Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell), the husband of Diane's sister, Val (Charlie Hardwick

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases