Samantha Giles fears she may never work again.

Samantha Giles

Samantha Giles

The former 'Emmerdale' star - who played Bernice Blackstock on and off on the ITV soap from 1998 until last year - admitted she has been wondering if she will act again, and insisted this is a "common thought" among out of work actors.

She wrote on Twitter: "Don't usually post gloomy tweets but today feels like a mammoth task ahead. Will I ever work again? (Common thought in out of work actors I'm afraid) (sic)"

Several of her followers tried to cheer Sam up including her former Dales co-star Natalie Anderson (Alicia Metcalfe), who described her pal as "amazing".

She wrote: "Sending big hugs Sam! Just remember you've written a best seller in the year of the pandemic!! You're amazing!! (sic)"

After a wave of uplifting tweets, the 49-year-old star - who released her debut novel 'Rosemary and the Witches of Pendle Hill' last month - planned to "find some positives" for the rest of the day.

She tweeted: "Right! I've had a moan and a boo and now I'm moving on- there's so many folk in worse situations. Thanks for all your lovely messages. I'm going to find some positives today. X (sic)"

Samantha recently admitted she likes to "take risks" in life, and said landing a literary agent was one of the "hardest things" she has done in her career.

The star explained: "It is, because I didn't know if it would ever get published to be honest.

"When I'd written it first, I sent it round to agents, and getting a literary agent, oh my God! It's one of the hardest things - getting an acting agent is pretty hard!

"I like taking risks sometimes. I think, 'Come on, life's short, let's do something dangerous. Let's take a risk'.

"Why not? What's the worst that could happen? Oh, I won't get any work? OK, well I'll just have to find something else."