EAGLE-EYED viewers of Tyke TV may remember catching a double dose of aspiring actress Iona Walters on their screens this week.

Iona, 24, of Flatts Lane, Wombleton, near Kirkbymoorside, appeared briefly as a bride in Sunday's Heartbeat - in her first speaking role in a TV drama.

She also popped up in a non-speaking role in Emmerdale, another Yorkshire Television long-runner, as one of the jurors in the trial of Kim Tate and her husband Steve Marchant.

"In Heartbeat on Sunday I was playing a bride, as the comedy ending of the story.

I'm actually with a casting agency, which finds me the work.

"In Emmerdale I was working as an extra. But Heartbeat was a step up because I had a line, which ran 'Thank you Mr Greengrass'."

Iona, who has a degree in drama, said: "It makes quite a difference to the way you're treated on set, whether you're a speaking actor or a non-speaking extra. I even had a very small trailer on the Heartbeat set."

She is juggling her budding acting career with her work as arts development officer at the Old Meeting House arts centre at Helmsley, where she also directs the 1812 Youth Theatre group.

"I would love to work in films really," Iona said. "But, at the moment, I'm open to as much experience as I can get.

"You never stop learning, so it's all good training - whatever you do. I did an advert for Morrison's supermarkets which involved an overnight shoot in one of their stores.

"That was a bit strange, but you learn how all the different aspects of the business work."

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