Actress and former glamour model, Linda Lusardi will be leaving Emmerdale at the end of this year.

Linda joined the soaps cast a year ago when she accepted the role of Carrie Nicholls, former mistress of Tom King. However she now wishes to move on to more varied acting projects.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed playing Carrie Nicholls for the last year. I am looking forward to working on new projects in 2008,” she added.

Emmerdale series producer Kathleen Beedles said: “We’ve got some fantastic storylines coming up involving Carrie in the coming months.”

“We wish Linda all the very best for the future,” she added.