Emmerdale's Belle Dingle star unrecognisable in first ever ITV soap appearance

Emmerdale: Cain demands to know where Belle is

Emmerdale star Eden Taylor-Draper has been taking on the hardest-hitting storylines in the ITV soap of late, and this week viewers cheered as her character Belle Dingle announced she was leaving her abusive husband Tom King.

Eden has played Belle since she was just seven years old, with her first soap appearance coming in October 2005. Her first scenes were alongside Steve Halliwell, who played her dad Zak Dingle until his tragic death last year.

In scenes airing that year, Belle was seen getting in trouble at school for starting a fight – and giving plenty of backtalk to her dad.

Sitting in the Dingles’ van, Belle recounted an incident with a girl at school, fuming: “She kept calling me! She keeps coming up behind me and pulling my hair going, ‘Ding dong’ like it’s supposed to be funny!”

Zak warned her: “You can’t go round thumping folk!” as Belle insisted: “Cain does it!”

Eden looked unrecognisable during her first appearance in 2005 (Image: ITV)

Later, Belle was in trouble with her mum Lisa over the incident, forced to wash the dishes while Sam and his wife Alice looked on. It came after Belle was absent from the family for months under the guise of looking after Granny Clegg – but in real life, it was so the actress could be aged up and replaced.

Eden wasn’t the first person to portray Belle in the soap. As a baby, the character was played by a boy – James Mather – with his sister Emily Mather taking on the role from 1998 until 2005. Emily went on to study sports at college with the dream of becoming a teacher – a complete U-turn from her acting career.

When Eden first landed her role – and scooped the British Soap Award for best performance by a young actor in 2007 – her mum Niki confessed that she helped to keep her daughter’s feet firmly on the ground.

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Belle lost her mum Lisa and is set to lose her dad Zak soon (Image: ITV)

Niki told the York Press at the time: “My daughter won a soap award on Saturday, which we're over the moon about. My other daughter went to the toilet on her own for the first time and we were just as pleased. We're proud of all of them for doing these fabulous things, but they are all equal. It's just that for one of them, eight million people were watching!”

Eden didn’t even fancy staying at the after-show party for the awards, with Niki recalling: “She said, ‘Mum, can we go back to the hotel? I want to bounce on the bed and have a ham sandwich’. So we went back to the hotel and bounced on the bed and had a ham sandwich and a cup of tea."

Emmerdale airs weeknights from 7:30pm on ITV.

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Emmerdale's Belle Dingle star unrecognisable in first ever ITV soap appearance

Emmerdale's Belle Dingle star unrecognisable in first ever ITV soap appearance

Emmerdale's Belle Dingle star unrecognisable in first ever ITV soap appearance

Emmerdale's Belle Dingle star unrecognisable in first ever ITV soap appearance

Emmerdale's Belle Dingle star unrecognisable in first ever ITV soap appearance