Claire King
Plays
Karen Betts
Claire doesn’t mince her words when it comes to describing her new screen character Wing Governor Karen Betts: “Firm but fair, a strong woman who knows her own mind and knows how to treat people. Someone you would want on your side, as she will always deliver on the job and plays by the book”.
“She’s a real good egg. I usually seem to always be playing bitches or vamps so this is great!”
Coming into Bad Girls was very exciting for Claire but “It’s always nerve wracking being the new girl on the block. But on this series there are no egos and everyone is working together, towards the same goal”.
Claire has worked hard on “Trying to develop her new character, who’s been married before and has a son at University. It’s a first to have a teenager (I’ve had a baby before in Emmerdale) but to suddenly have a nineteen year old is a little upsetting!”
Karen Betts arrives at HMP Larkhall to discover that she will be working with Senior Prison Officer Jim Fenner (Jack Ellis) with whom she had a fling with four years before. “On the whole, the prisoners like Karen when she takes over as the Wing Governor, because she is a fair person. She’s worked her way up through the ranks, having ‘trod the landings’. She’s had a bit of a fast promotion as Simon Stubberfield (Roland Oliver) sees her as his protégé. Jim Fenner certainly has his nose put out of joint when he is passed over”.
Born and bred in Harrogate, Claire King’s home is still up in North Yorkshire, where she lives in “the middle of nowhere” in a converted seventeenth century barn, with her husband and their labrador, Digger.
Claire met her actor husband Peter Amory (Christopher Tate in Emmerdale), on the set of Emmerdale, when she was playing Kim Tate. They have been married for five and a half years, and with their very busy filming schedules in separate parts of the country, time together is very precious.
Claire and her family have always been involved in horses, having been brought up with them. A few years back, a trainer whom she was riding out with persuaded her to take out her licence to race. CLAIRE has ridden races on courses at Redcar, Doncaster, Newmarket and “when I was in Emmerdale I rode the Newmarket Plate, which is the longest flat race – not very successfully but at least I’ve done it!” She has now joined a syndicate to part own some race horses so “we have a bit of fun with that. I don’t have time to ride out anymore - it’s something that you have to do constantly, but riding is my passion”.
Claire is best known for the nine years that she played super bitch Kim Tate in Emmerdale. Other television credits include Angela in Babes In The Wood, and many comedy shows including: Alas Smith and Jones, Robbie Coltrane Special and Hale and Pace.