Former Emmerdale and Coronation Street star Jacqueline Pirie ventured down an exciting new career path when she left the world soapland.
The actress, 49, played Tina Dingle in Emmerdale from 1994-1996. Daughter of Zak and Nellie Dingle (Steve Halliwell and Sandra Gough), the character departed the Dales after refusing to accept Frank Tate’s (Norman Bowler) proposal and quitting her job.
Following that, she took on the role of Linda Baldwin, the fourth wife of Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs).
In 2001, she drove out of Weatherfield in Mike’s car, which was later pulled from a river. It left the residents fearing she had died but a year later, they discovered Linda was living in Dublin.
It’s been a quite a few years since we last saw the soap star on our screens and unsurprisingly, Jacqueline has changed a great deal as she developed a name for herself as an author.
Now going by the name Jacqueline Chadwick, the former actress lives in Victoria Canada, and has written multiple crime novels.
The books centre around a character called Ali Dalglish, an ex-forensic psychologist turned housewife, who finds herself involved in murder cases. The titles include In the Still, Briefly Maiden and Silent Sisters.
Jacqueline’s former co-star Steve Halliwell died in December last year.
The soap will today pay tribute to Steve and his alter-ego Zak, with an emotional funeral episode set to air tonight.
‘The Dingles have been at the heart of our show for 30 years now and will continue to be so,’ producer Sophie Roper told Metro.co.uk.
‘We lost Steve recently, the very sad passing of Steve, so we’re going to be marking the passing of the iconic Zak Dingle with a Dingle funeral.
‘It’s very difficult for a lot of people who work on the show and for many of our viewers who have loved Zak for many, many years, but there’ll be a fitting tribute to such an iconic character coming up.’
