Val Pollard

Infobox Emmerdale character 2


name=Val Pollard
portrayer=Charlie Hardwick
years=2004—
born=birth date and age |1957|2|19|df=yes
death=
home=The Woolpack
occupation=Landlady/Entrepreneur
family=
spouse =Eric Pollard (2008—)
sisters =Diane Sugden
sons = Paul Lambert
daughters = Sharon Lambert
nieces = Bernice Thomas
great nieces = Gabby Thomas
Diane Jnr.
first = 1 February 2004
last =

Valerie "Val" Pollard (née Lambert) is a fictional character on the ITV soap opera "Emmerdale". She is played by Charlie Hardwick.

Overview

When Val Lambert descended on Emmerdale, her sister Diane Sugden didn’t know what hit her. The two women have always had a difficult relationship after their mother died when they were young and Diane brought up her flighty sister.

On arrival in the village, Val was sporting a black eye, which she told Diane had been the fault of her previous boyfriend. But when the man in question turned up, it transpired that Val had scammed him into paying for her to have a nose job, before fleeing.

Always on the lookout for the next man to fund her lifestyle, Val was delighted to find her ex-brother-in-law Rodney Blackstock was living in Emmerdale and was now a millionaire. The pair soon embarked on a relationship and Val worked with Diane in the pub. Val was never happy with just one man and was sleeping with both Rodney and his employee Danny Daggert. She eventually chose Rodney, believing him to be the better bet in the long term. However, when Diane was diagnosed with colon cancer, Rodney was devastated and realised he was still in love with her. His declaration was met with rejection by Diane, but it ended his relationship with Val as he could no longer pretend to care for her. Furious and rejected, Val fled to Italy to stay with her son’s (Paul) lover Enzo and returned just in time for Diane’s wedding to local farmer Jack Sugden. And she wasn’t alone. Val turned up with a drop dead gorgeous hunk, half her age and tongues immediately started wagging.

When it was revealed that she’d paid him to pretend to be her man, Diane disowned her - sick of being lied to. Furious at being rejected by both her sister and Rodney, Val dropped the mother of all bombshells at the wedding.

She revealed that she and Rodney had enjoyed a passionate fling behind Diane’s back and that her son Paul was Rodney’s child. Horrified by her actions, Val found herself disowned by everyone close to her. But she remained optimistic that somehow she could turn it around.

Relationship with Eric Pollard

She ended up getting close to fellow village pariah Eric Pollard and the pair struck up a partnership both professional and personal. Together they launched a fabrics company and Pollard tried to relaunch his career in politics. However, while he was madly in love with Val, Pollard remained a deeply selfish man and when it became clear that she was standing in the way of his political career, Eric turned on her.

Although they’d agreed to pretend to split up, Val was horrified to hear Eric disowning her to the local mayor and dumped him –causing there to be high tension at the factory.

Paul's "Father" Returns

Val was plunged into a new nightmare when Jimmy Pepper, the man who’d brought Paul up believing he was his son, turned up in Emmerdale. Jimmy was horrified to hear that Val had been lying about Paul’s paternity – especially since he’d paid a fortune in maintenance.

Not only was Jimmy determined to get his money but he was also prepared to go to any means to get it. Terrified, Val ended up stealing the Woolpack’s takings to pay Jimmy off, and then pretended she’s been mugged.

Reconciling with Eric Pollard

When the truth was revealed, Diane went mad and reported Val to the police for theft. The resulting trial saw Val given community service which threw her into conflict with local pensioner Noreen Bell. While at first Val hated Noreen, the two women struck up friendship and joined forces to oppose Eric when he stood for council again. By now, Val and Pollard were close to being back together and when she ended up running against him in the election. For a while the sparring and banter helped keep the spark alive between Eric and Val but when she thought it might finish their relationship for good, she tried to turn the entire electorate against her by telling all about her lying and scheming over the years.

Crazily, it didn’t work and still Pollard remained behind her in the race. Fortunately, they worked it out in the end and are back living together again.

Financial Circumstances

Val has always dreamed of being rich and she thought she was on her way after investing money in Pearl Ladderbanks’ Internet Investment Scheme, unaware the whole thing was a con. When the truth came out Val held no punches when and Pearl was forced to leave the village for a while.

Val's dreams of being rich came about through unfortunate circumstances. When Noreen died in the Kings River Showhome explosion she left all her money, which she saved up for decades, to Val. Val bought half the Woolpack, much to Diane's shock.

Relationship with Billy Hopwood

She recently became attracted to Billy Hopwood and went on a date with him which went well for both of them. Problem is she doesn't realise Billy and her sister Diane's secret feelings for each other.

On 2nd October Val realised that the reason why Diane was away was because of another man. When visiting Billy in prison the next day whilst she was taking about Diane and Jack Billy came over jealous which is when the penny finally dropped for Val as she realised that Billy is her sister's mystery man. This all ended with Val in tears.

Reconciling with Eric Pollard (Again!)

Valerie found out that she was having problems with her eyesight, Jonny Foster knew about it and was concerned about her and insisted that she go to the opticians and get things checked out, Jonny accompanied her to the opticians, and she was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes. Eric, surprisingly stuck by her and helped her through it. Also, Eric proposed to Val and she accepted.

"The Pub Of The Year" Contest

Val planned her son Paul's civil partnership to Jonny, and also planned to renovate Woolpack, or as she wanted to rename it, "Wool". Diane refused to go along with her changes, but they united in their efforts to win the Pub of the Year competition. Meanwhile, Eric was behaving erratically. Val eventually stumbled onto the fact that he was being blackmailed over his nearly having an affair with a business acquaintance named Rosalind. When Val tracked him down at a money drop, he assumed she was the blackmailer, but Val soon sussed out that Rosalind was responsible. They forced her to give all the money back.

The Wedding: Emmerdale's 5000th Episode

All the plans for other events made Val more and more determined to have a lavish wedding. Eric had a cheaper idea in mind and convinced her family to help him plan a surprise wedding set right after the Pub of the Year competition. Not only would they be using the same venue, but Eric even sold tickets to the wedding under the guise that it was for the competition. Val was thrilled at the support of Eric and her family - even her estranged daughter Sharon Lambert visited - all while not knowing the real story.

The morning of the competition, Val was accidentally knocked out by Lisa Dingle carrying a big bag of linens. Lisa and Val had been feuding and Lisa worried Val might have it out for her. Eli Dingle tied and gagged Val whilst Lisa was gone, intending to ransom her. Val was fuming at the Dingles until Lisa accidentally let it slip that Eric was planning the wedding for that day. To get revenge, Val played along with the Dingles and called Eric up as the helpless victim who needed 10,000 pounds to be freed. Eric tracked her down at the Dingles and when she overheard his kind words about her, she emerged from hiding. They had a huge row which only ended when the family shoved them into a van and drove them back to the village.

Val decided to follow her heart and go through with the ceremony. Eventually, they married in a church filled with friends and family on 3 June 2008.

Factory in Flames

Recently Sam Dingle burnt down the factory, when Eric confided in him about his financial difficulty. Val went on a spree of accusations, starting with Pearl Ladderbanks. Only in Emmerdale...

Trivia

Actress Charlie Hardwick won the Best Comedy Performance award at the 2006 British Soap Awards for her performance as Val Lambert.

External links

* [http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=3697 Val Lambert] at itv.com