Samantha Giles felt "a little disappointed" with her 'Emmerdale' exit storyline.

Samantha Giles

Samantha Giles

The 48-year-old star - who appeared on the ITV soap on and off from 1998 until her departure in November last year - thinks bosses should have killed off her character Bernice Blackstock.

She told Inside Soap magazine: "If she had been killed, perhaps I'd have got a better exit story as it was a little disappointing.

"I had quite a lot of people on Twitter saying that they felt a bit cheated by the way Bernice left, but it's done now. You can't please everyone!"

Instead of a dramatic exit, Bernice was last seen saying goodbye to the Dales so she could go and care for her ex-husband Charlie in Australia.

While Samantha thinks there was more scope for her alter ego's departure, she appreciates that bosses left the door open for a possible return.

She previously said: "I said [to the producers] I don't mind what they did, because I think if you say that you're going, you can't then say, 'Oh, don't kill me, though'.

"So I wouldn't have minded if they had [killed me off]. But they wanted to leave it open. So that's really nice that she's not dead."

While the actress has refused to confirm her character is gone for good, she admitted a return hasn't been discussed.

She added: "So many times I've said, 'I wouldn't do that' and then you end up doing them, so never say never, but for now, the doors closed."

Samantha has said goodbye to the soap opera a number of times before - she left in 2002 and reappeared in 2004, before departing again until 2012 - but now she is ready to try something new.

She explained: "I just felt it was the right time. I've been thinking about it for a couple of years and, like a lot of actors, I've got itchy feet and I just thought, 'I need a change, I want to play something a bit more gritty, I want to do some other stuff.' There's so many other things out there, so hopefully I will."