Former 'Emmerdale' star claims bosses encouraged raunchy shoots

Amy Nuttall claims 'Emmerdale' bosses encouraged her to strip off for raunchy photo shoots.

The actress - who plays Chloe Atkinson in the ITV soap for five years until 2005 - says producers were keen for her to appear in men's magazines as it gave extra publicity for the show.

She said: "I was kind of told that if you do this you will get bigger and better storylines. They said that the more attention you got, the bigger the character would grow, therefore there would be more to do.

"And so I kind of thought, 'Oh well...in that case'. I wouldn't say there was pressure to do it but I certainly was young and naive because I was just 18 when I started in 'Emmerdale'."

Nuttall - who now appears in BBC drama 'Hotel Babylon' - says she grew frustrated as she was becoming more famous for her body rather than her acting.

She told Britain's People newspaper: "I went on 'GMTV' to plug my storyline and all they wanted talk about was a lad's mag that I was in. I thought, 'Hang on a minute, there is more to me than that.' "

An ITV spokesperson said: "We would never suggest an actress do a shoot in exchange for additional storylines.

"The decision to do photo shoots for men's magazines lies with the actress concerned, without any pressure from the company."