Holly Barton (Sophie Powles)

Holly Barton

Holly - addicted to trouble

Holly moves into the village with the rest of the Barton clan and gets a job at Home Farm. She gets her A-Level results and starts college studying art.

She starts dating her brother's best mate Aaron Livesy much to Adam's annoyance as he correctly suspects Aaron is gay after the confused teen tries to kiss him. Eventually Holly splits up with Aaron because she feels there is something missing between them.

Holly starts hitting the town with best mate Roz and the two girls start to use cocaine when on a night out. Holly's reliance on the drug quickly takes hold and soon she is addicted and moving onto heroin.

She resorts to theft and even prostitution to secure her fix but is eventually persuaded to come home and is on a methadone programme to wean her off the drugs altogether.

Sophie Powles

Sophie Powles has never been to stage school but got a couple of small parts in Holby City and Dalziel and Pascoe (her character's mother was played by Emmerdale actress Emma Atkins).

She then worked as a lifeguard and travelled around Australia before she landed a role in Britannia High. In fact her role as Ronnie was created especially for her as the casting crew were so impressed but the main cast were already in place. It was due to this that Ronnie is the only character who isn't a student at Britannia High - she is said to have auditioned but can't sing (as is demonstrated in one episode where she is dancing on a table in the canteen where she works, singing Sweet About Me by Gabriella Cilme)

Sophie was her natural blonde in Britannia High but dyed her hair brown before joining Emmerdale as Holly, the eldest daughter of the Barton Family in 2009.

2010 brought a hard-hitting drug storyline for Sophie to tackle, having to portray Holly in pain and despair going through heroin withdrawals.