Lisa Riley hints she could make Emmerdale return after 17 years

LISA Riley has hinted she might return to Emmerdale after 17 years away.

The actress, who left her role as Mandy Dingle on the ITV1 soap back in 2001, says she hasn't ruled out a comeback.

She told : "I always say 'never say never'. They always ask me to go back to Emmerdale.

"Playing Mandy Dingle, for seven and a half years, don't get me wrong, it was amazing and now it's been 20 years ago.

Lisa, who has recently starred on BBC drama Three Girls and forthcoming series Age Before Beauty added: "It's great that the public would want me to go back."

Lisa revealed she's also come under pressure from her co-stars to return to the Dales.

She said: "Dominic Brunt [who plays Paddy, Mandy's ex-husband] desperately wants me to go back.

"He's like 'Come back, what's to lose?' and I'm like 'I don't know.'"

"Maybe it is my pension fund, maybe there will be one day when I am sixty and it's my pension."

Lisa is a shadow of her former soap self after dropping an incredible 12 stone after a diet overhaul.

The actress previously told The Sun she was infuriated when people accused her of having a gastric band and said her weight loss was all down to her hard work.

She explained: “Listen, I could eat a family-sized trifle all by myself. And crisps were my heroin! I still miss them.

“Not to mention being able to polish off a bottle of Malbec easily. But I radically changed my eating habits.

“I cut out carbs and now eat lots of fresh fruit and veg. I still exercise a lot – Zumba classes and the like. And at the beginning I went to boot camp a few times to give me a kick-start.”