Emmerdale’s Tom Lister in surprise career change 10 years after shock murder of evil villain Carl King
EMMERDALE actor Tom Lister is now working as a window cleaner.
The star, who played scheming Carl on the soap between 2004 and 2012, has set up a company in Blackpool to bring in extra cash between jobs.
Speaking on Coastal Radio DAB, he opened up about how he started cleaning windows during Covid and it progressed from there.
He explained: “I am still working and I have done lots of things over the last couple of years but it’s probably one of the most tricky periods of my career.
“I have been very fortunate, I have had over 20 years acting and worked quite solidly through that period, be it on television or I worked on the West End.
“When Covid hit, the work just wasn’t there so Steve Royal and me set up a production company, we made an online pantomime, which we sold to school’s locally.”
He continued: “But that was only a really short period of time so I was just doing regular jobs like lost of other people. So I started cleaning windows for my mate’s company and I was doing it for quite awhile and it was great to keep my head sane.
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“And then that has really just progressed and I have actually franchised that company and I am now kind of doing it myself. So I have got costumers down here in Blackpool. It’s called Aqua Bright.”
Last year Tom revealed revealed he was asked to return as Carl King’s ghost – but had to turn it down.
He said: “I was actually asked to go back as a ghost but there was no way I could do it.
“Then I’m the end they got someone who looked like me from the back and then just pulled out a couple of lines from old audio!
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“I was like, ‘What are you doing?’”
However the actor also revealed how being killed off in the soap – Carl had his head bashed in by Cameron Murray in 2012 – forced him to move on in his career.
He told the Soap From the Box podcast said: “I do think the finality of my exit really helped me think I can’t be constantly looking over my shoulder when times are tough, particularly now over the last year where soaps have been one of the only things that’s been made.
“I can’t ring up some of my old friends and be like, ‘hey, how do you fancy seeing Carl King back for a bit?’.
“I have to move on and forge a new path, that’s meant I look back at Emmerdale with nothing but fond memories but me move on to new pastures and hopefully bigger and better things.”