EMMERDALE
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(Redirected from Emmerdale Farm)
'''Emmerdale''' (known as '''Emmerdale Farm''' until November 1989) is an award winning and critically acclaimed British soap opera, set in the fictional village of the same name (known as Beckindale until 1994) in West Yorkshire, England. Much of the action takes place within the fictional village pub, The Woolpack. The show was created by Kevin Laffan, with Keith Richardson serving as Executive Producer since 1986, and Kathleen Beedles serving as Series Producer since 2005 (she will be departing at the end of 2007).
''Emmerdale'' is the third highest-rating soap opera on British television, behind ''Coronation Street'' and ''EastEnders''.
The series is produced by Yorkshire Television (now known as ITV Productions) and broadcast on the ITV network, and was first aired on 16 October, 1972. It was originally conceived and broadcast as a daytime programme in an afternoon slot, moving to its current position as an early evening programme in 1978.
''Emmerdale'' is shown from Sunday to Friday at 7pm on ITV. Repeat episodes and the omnibus of the show can be seen on ITV2.
''Emmerdale Farm'' was originally modelled on the revolutionary soap-opera ''The Riordans'', made by RTÉ, Ireland's broadcaster, from the mid-1960s to the end of the 70s. ''The Riordans'' broke new ground for soap operas by being filmed largely out of doors (on a farm owned, in the storyline, by Tom and Mary Riordan), rather than, as was the norm in British and American soap operas, being almost totally shot in studios (even 'outdoor' scenes were traditionally filmed indoors). ''The Riordans'' pioneered location shooting, with real farm animals, and actors driving tractors. In the 1960s and 1970s, outdoor filming of television programmes using OBUs (Outdoor Broadcast Units) was in its infancy, due to the far higher costs involved, and the reliance on things like the weather that were out of the control of the programme makers.
The success of ''The Riordans'' showed that a soap opera could be filmed out of doors. Yorkshire Television sent people to ''The Riordans'' set in County Meath, Ireland to see the making of the programme at first hand.
On the basis of what they saw, the station began preparations for its own rural-based, outdoor-filmed, soap opera, called ''Emmerdale Farm''. As with ''The Riordans'', it was to be focused on one family, the Sugdens, and the name of their farm was also the name of the show.
The Miffield estate was the biggest employer in the village of Beckindale - situated 39 miles from Bradford and 52 miles from Leeds. Lord Miffield gave the lease of Emmerdale Farm, on the edge of the village, to the Sugden family in the 1850s out of gratitude, after Josh Sugden had sacrificed his life for the Earl's son in the Crimean War.
Josh's grandson Joseph married Margaret and they had a son Jacob. In the 1930s, Jacob Sugden supposedly purchased Emmerdale Farm for his family. In 1945 he married Annie Pearson - daughter of farm labourer Sam Pearson.
Jacob had run the farm into the ground, as he had drunk away most of the profits, leaving it in a sorry state. It was badly maintained, and the future of the farm looked bleak at the time of Jacob's death on the 10 October 1972.
Jacob left a wife Annie and three grown children, two sons, Jack (the eldest) and Joe (the youngest of the three), and daughter Peggy. These characters would form the basis of the series ''Emmerdale Farm''.
The first episode of ''Emmerdale Farm'' opened with the funeral of Jacob Sugden on the 16 October 1972.
Jacob had upset the family by leaving the farm to his eldest son, Jack, who had not been seen since 1964 when, at the age of 18, he left his family, heritage and ''Beckindale'' - for London.
Jack Sugden returned to the farm in this opening episode, although he chose to stay away from the funeral - making his presence known only after the service, when the Sugdens returned to their home, Emmerdale Farm - where they found him waiting for them.
The first lines uttered in this first episode were spoken by Peggy Skilbeck:
"Matt, who’s she?"
Peggy was referring to Marian Wilks who was watching the funeral cortege whilst out riding.
The Wilkses proved to be new to the village; Marion's father Henry Wilks was a wealthy businessman.
In subsequent months, Jack sold a share of the Farm to Annie, Joe, Peggy and his grandfather Sam Pearson. Emmerdale Farm Ltd was formed after Henry Wilks bought Sam’s share of the estate.
The first episode is available free for UK viewers at ITV.com.
Initially the show focused on the farm, and the Sugden family who lived on and ran it. As time went on, the show's focus moved to the nearby village of Beckindale. To reflect this change, the show's name was changed in November 1989 to ''Emmerdale'', and later the name of the village changed from Beckindale to Emmerdale. Coinciding with the soap's name change was the introduction of the Tates, who would emerge as the soap's leading family in the 1990s, overshadowing the Sugdens. In turn, the Tate family has since been supplanted, with the Dingle and King families taking centre stage in the early 2000s.
On the 21st May 2007 the ''Emmerdale'' online channel announced it would be continuing past the Who Killed Tom King? storyline. [1]
Despite being a small village, ''Emmerdale'' is a bustling place for business. The current businesses are:
★ ''Home Farm Estates'' (owned by Matthew, Jimmy and Carl King and run by Rodney Blackstock)
★ ''Butler's Farm'' (owned by ''Home Farm Estates'' and leased and run by Andy Sugden)
★ ''Val's Interiors'' (owned and run by Eric Pollard)
★ ''The Veterinary'' (owned by Paddy Kirk and Rosemary King and run by Paddy)
★ ''The Grange B&B'' (owned and run by Louise Appleton and Terry Woods)
★ ''Café Hope'' (owned and run by Viv and Bob Hope)
★ ''The Post Office'' (owned and run by Viv Hope)
★ ''King & Sons'' - who run haulage and bin collection services (owned by Matthew King (35%), Jimmy King (30%), Carl King (25%) and Scarlett Nicholls (10%) and run by Matthew, Jimmy and Carl King and Carrie Nicholls)
★ ''Emmerdale Exclusive Cleaning Services'' (owned by Eric Pollard and David Metcalfe and run by David)
★ ''Windsor and Dingle Garage'' (owned by Scott Windsor and Debbie Dingle and run by Debbie)
★ ''Debbie's Cars'' (owned and run by Chas and Debbie Dingle)
★ ''The Woolpack'' (owned and run by sisters Diane Sugden and Val Lambert)
Main articles: Major Storylines of Emmerdale
Until 1993, ''Emmerdale'' was largely ignored by press and viewers alike, in the face of much more well-known soaps such as ''Coronation Street'', ''EastEnders'' and ''Brookside''. This, however, was changed when ''Emmerdale's plane crash storyline brought ''Emmerdale'' into the public eye, consequently keeping the show as one of the most watched soap operas on British television. As well as the plane crash storyline, there have been several other major storylines, including the famous storm of 2003, the Kings River explosion of 2006, and, more recently, the murder of Tom King on Christmas Day, 2006.
In addition to the sensational plane crash storyline, the woolpack was blown up in the 1990s, and recently Kings River showhome collapsed after several explosions caused by a gas leak. The collapse claimed threes lives: Noreen Bell and estate agent David Brown were killed in the explosion, and Dawn Woods later died in hospital from internal injuries.
Other disasters include:
★ 1995 - Luke McAllister died after his car crashed into a tree and exploded into flames.
★ 1996 - Dave Glover died in a fire after attending Biff and Linda's wedding.
★ 2000 - A van and minibus collide in the village. Van driver Pete Collins dies at the scene; minibus passenger Butch Dingle dies in hospital from his injuries the next day.
★ 2000 - Long-running character Sarah Sugden died in a barn fire.
★ 2001 - Miss Jean Strickland, the headmistress, was struck and killed by a stolen car driven by student Marc Reynolds on his way home from a night out with friends.
★ 2002 - The church was burnt down by schizophrenic Zoe Tate.
★ 2003 - A large storm hit Emmerdale, leaving parts of the village in ruins, with collapsed power lines and trees, The Woolpack was damaged by its chimney collapsing through the roof into the bar area, and also out the front, crushing Tricia Dingle and resulting in her dying in hospital a few days later; characters such as Ashley Thomas and Louise Appleton became stuck on the road as a result of the terrible weather. The disaster took place on the tenth anniversary of the plane crash.
★ 2005 - Shelly Williams fell off a boat in Scotland, and was never found.
★ 2005 - Zoe Tate and Callum Rennie destroyed ''Home Farm'' in a gas explosion for revenge on the King's before leaving Emmerdale.
★ 2005 - Max King died instantly when the Land Rover he was in went off the road and through a brick wall and exploded, although driver Andy Sugden escaped the car unharmed and gave a false story about the accident to avoid being arrested; and the police believed his version of events, as there were no witnesses to contradict his story.
★ 2006 - The vicarage burnt down after a stray spark ignited spilt vodka, with Debbie Dingle trapped inside.
★ 2006 - Tom King was murdered on Christmas Day when son Carl hit him over the head with a horse statue and pushed him out of a window.
★ 2007 - A tampered van driven by Billy Hopwood crashed into a lake and sank with him and Victoria Sugden inside, but they both survived.
Emmerdale is famous for its extremely dramatic exit storylines. These characters would have made some of the most memorable exits from ''Emmerdale'' while still breathing. (For characters who left through death, see below).
★ 'Kim Tate' - Kim and her husband Steve Marchant stole a horse, intent on selling it, as they were experiencing a cash flow problem. As they where driving away from the scene, Steve ran over Kathy Glover. While in hospital, Kim managed to make Kathy believe that Steve had not stopped his vehicle when he had hit her, in order to make her husband seem to be the sole villain of the piece - even though she had helped to plan the thievery of the horse. On the day of trial in January 1999, with the lawyers questioning Kathy's validity as a witness for Steve's hit-and-run crime, Kathy herself came to question how true Kim's words had been. For this, and numerous other crooked tricks, the police were soon on her trail. She confronted Chris Tate to try to get hold of money as a means of escape, and knocked him out savagely with a paperweight when he would not comply. She left with her son James in a helicopter, never to be seen again. The pilot asked her if she was Kim Marchant, and with her final words on the soap she replied, "No, it's Kim Tate".
★ 'Charity Tate' - After Sadie King tricked Tom King into believing that Charity was having an affair with Cain Dingle, Tom called off the wedding to Charity. Despite later realising the lie, Tom was unable to convince Charity to reconcile with him, as all Charity wanted was revenge. She managed to get Jimmy King into bed after making him realise what Sadie was all about, and filmed them in bed together, and got him to confess that Sadie set her up. She took this tape to Tom and showed it to him in front of his whole family. Charity gave Sadie a punch and left the soap, despite an emotional plea from Tom King.
★ 'Zoe Tate' - Zoe was facing a court case for the attempted murder of Scott Windsor. After being blackmailed into selling Home Farm to Sadie King, she took revenge by blowing up the building; in her final scene, she waited in a car in front of the building waiting for the explosion, then drove off and out of the soap.
★ 'Cain Dingle' and 'Sadie King' - The couple kidnapped Tom King, with Sadie pretending to have been double-crossed by Cain. The story took a number of twists and turns, with Cain's car going over into a quarry, although it was later discovered to be empty, and Cain shooting Sadie, although it was later discovered that this was also faked. As they prepared to make their escape by plane, Cain betrayed Sadie, leaving her at the airfield, and he flew off over the village. Both Cain and Sadie left the soap.
★ 'Steph Forsythe' - Steph finally did the right thing, even though it could have been in better circumstances when she pleaded guilty to the murder of brother Terence. This was to serve her dues for the death of Shelly Williams. Steph was then sentenced to life imprisonment, although it was in fact her estranged husband Adam who did the deed.
Location shooting originally occurred in the village of Arncliffe in Littondale, one of the less frequented valleys of the Yorkshire Dales. In exterior shots, the village's hotel, The Falcon, was used to represent the fictional Woolpack Inn. Eventually the location of the shooting location became publicly known, which is perhaps what prompted the move to the village of Esholt in 1976, where it stayed for the next 22 years. This location also became a tourist attraction.
The original ''Emmerdale Farm'' buildings are near the village of Leathley.
From 1998 a purpose-built set on the Harewood estate is used, building on the Harewood estate started in 1996. The first scenes shot in the purpose-built set on the Harewood Estate were broadcast on 17th February 1998, from the front of the Woolpack (although some scenes were shot there from 1997).
The houses in the new village at Harewood are timber framed structures covered in stone cladding. The village is built on green belt land so all the buildings are classed as "temporary structures" and must be demolished within ten years unless new planning permission is given. There is no plan to demolish the set and new planning has now been drawn up. Although no church was built on the Harewood set, there is a churchyard full of gravestones, some of them for the characters who have died in the serial.
Location footage of the fictional market town of Hotten is shot in Otley. The Benton Park School in Rawdon and the primary school in Farnley are also used as shooting locations. Indoor scenes are mostly filmed in the ''Emmerdale'' production centre in Leeds (located next to the main YTV building). See on Google Earth here.
Visit Emmerdale Behind the Scenes for a full guided tour of all the filming locations used since 1972, right up to the present day.
''Emmerdale Farm'' started as an afternoon soap opera on the ITV Network in 1972. Soon after the start, the majority of ITV regions chose to accommodate the programme in the 7pm Tuesday and Thursday slot. Anglia Television and Thames Television preferred a Monday and Tuesday 5:15pm slot and saw the week's episodes before the rest of the network.
From 6 January 1988, all ITV regions networked the show in the Wednesday and Thursday 6.30pm slot. Anglia Television and Central Television chose to move the programme to 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays in February 1989, as they were screening the new daily Australian drama ''Home and Away'' in the ''Emmerdale Farm'' slot. This was the first time Anglia had screened ''Emmerdale Farm'' in the 7pm slot. Central were simply returning to the slots they used until December 1987. For a period Anglia and Central saw episodes one week later than other regions.
From January 1990 all other regions followed the Central and Anglia schedule in the familiar Tuesday and Thursday 7pm slot. Enjoying highs of 11 million viewers. During the mid 1990s Scottish Television used the 7pm slot to show daily regional programmes resulting in ''Emmerdale'' moving to 5:10pm. Scottish Television had always given preference to their own countryside soap opera ''Take the High Road'', which was accommodated in a 7pm slot. After only several months in the earlier slot Scottish returned ''Emmerdale'' to the 7pm slot.
Between 1993 and 1995, ''Emmerdale'' was shown in a daytime slot with a repeat of the previous evening episode.
By 1 January 1997 ITV had opted to increase their output to three episodes a week with the additional episode being screened on Wednesdays. From 2 October 2000 a further two episodes were added on a Monday and Friday evening. A sixth episode to air on Sundays began in 2004.
''Emmerdale'' is notable for being the first television soap opera in the UK to regularly produce six episodes a week, shown every night, except Saturday, at 7pm.
The show is now ranked high in the British popularity stakes, being outdone regularly only by the two major mainstream soaps, ''Coronation Street'' and ''EastEnders''.
★ On Christmas Day 2005 Emmerdale attracted 6.2 million viewers, when the villagers searched for Daz Eden and Belle Dingle who fell down a mine shaft.
★ On Monday 24 April 2006 8.5 million viewers watched as Sam Dingle and Alice Wilson got married.
★ On Monday 25 December 2006 over 7 million viewers watched as Tom King got pushed out of a window and fell to his death on his wedding day to Rosemary Sinclair.
Recent hour-long episodes which have competed with ''EastEnders'' have won the battle for viewing figures, establishing itself as a serious contender as the second most popular British Soap. The village soap has gone head to head with BBC's ''EastEnders'' on several occasions over the past couple of years and emerged on top.
★ The Kings River house collapse (13 July, 2006): ''Emmerdale'' won in the ratings battle here.
★ Billy Hopwood, with Victoria Sugden, crashed his truck into a lake (1 February 2007): ''Emmerdale'' won here too, surprisingly since ''EastEnders'' episode involved an important storyline involving two of its most high profile characters, Martin and Sonia Fowler, leaving. ''Emmerdale'' attracted 8 million viewers with ''EastEnders'' gaining 6.5 million viewers.
★ The Who Killed Tom King? plot came to a close on Thursday 17 May, 2007, when the murderer was revealed. ''Emmerdale'' gained an average 8.6 million viewers, which peaked to 9.1 million viewers when Tom's son Carl confessed to the murder, between 7pm and 8pm. ''EastEnders'' could manage only 4 million between 7.30pm and 8pm.
Old episodes of ''Emmerdale Farm'' were repeated in the 1990s on Sky Soap, the episodes shown in March 1997 were from the early 1970s, but by the time Sky Soap ended in April 1999 the episodes shown were from 1988.
In July 1998, episodes from the first episode of the renamed soap were repeated on Granada Plus, and the 2001 episodes were being shown when the channel ended in October 2004.
''Emmerdale'' reaches viewers in the Republic of Ireland via both the widely available UTV from Northern Ireland and the TV3 Television Network in the Irish Republic. UTV and TV3 screen ''Emmerdale'' simultaneously in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
''Emmerdale'' has been shown in Sweden since the 1970s Рoriginally on TV2 and since 1994 on commercial channel TV4. Under the title ''Hem till g̴rden'' ("Home to the Farm"), the programme is broadcast at 12.25 on Monday to Friday lunchtimes (apart from a regular summer break). The episodes currently being screened (early 2007) date from 2004. Currently TV4 are screening the 17th block of 150 purchased episodes.
The programme is shown in Finland on commercial channel MTV3, where it goes out at 17.30 Mondays to Fridays with a repeat of each episode at 10.20 on the following weekday.
TV One in New Zealand shows the programme each weekday lunchtime at 12.30.
''Emmerdale'' was shown in Australia for the first time in July 2006 when cable television provider Foxtel began screening episodes from 2006 on its UK.TV channel.
On 2 February 2007 it was announced that ''Emmerdale'' would be broadcast on the Romanian free-to-air channel Pro TV. The station has bought 50 episodes of the soap dating back to 2000.
★ Satellite channel Granada UKTV is currently showing the programme in the Middle East, Cyprus, and Malta.
★ Members of the British Forces and their families can watch ''Emmerdale'' on BFBS TV1, which is also available free-to-air in the Falkland Islands.
★ The programme's title was changed from ''Emmerdale Farm'' to ''Emmerdale'' in November 1989; in the storyline, the village name was changed from Beckindale to Emmerdale in 1994.
★ All of the main characters in ''Bottom'' were avid fans of ''Emmerdale''. When ''Emmerdale Farm'' changed its name to ''Emmerdale'', the characters mused that this might be because it shortened the time needed for the audience to read its name, providing the writers with more screen time to fill with story arcs.
★ In the episode broadcast on 24 July 2006, Val Lambert visits Noreen Bell's house for the first time since Noreen was killed in the blast. She picks up a television magazine turned to the day of the disaster. While most of the schedule is as would normally be expected on a Thursday night, the 7pm slot on ITV shows a programme called ''Castle Bridge'' rather than ''Emmerdale''. The magazine also schedules ''The Bill'' at 8pm, where it would normally be broadcast, however, for this week only, it was actually replaced with ''PokerFace''.
★ Creskeld Hall (Home Farm) is one of the few original filming locations used in the entire run of the series and has been involved in many storylines.
★ Network DVD has announced three special DVD releases on October 15 2007 a 6 disc set of 35 years of the show. as well as the best of on a 2 disc set. And all of the 1972 episodes on a 4 disc set.
★ David Goddard (October 1972 - January 1973)
★ Peter Holmans (January 1973 - July 1973)
★ Robert D Cardona (July 1973 - 1976)
★ Michael Glynn (1976 - June 1979)
★ Anne Gibbons (June 1979 - October 1983)
★ Richard Handford (October 1983 - 1986)
★ Michael Russell (1986 - March 1988)
★ Stuart Doughty (March 1988 - December 1991)
★ Morag Bain (December 1991 - 1993)
★ Nicholas Prosser (1993 - 1994)
★ Mervyn Watson (1994 - 1998)
★ Kieran Roberts (1998 - April 2001)
★ Steve Frost (April 2001 - 2005)
★ Kathleen Beedles (2005 - )
Several ''Emmerdale'' books, fiction and non-fiction, have been produced, a number written by Lance Parkin (who had been a storyliner on the TV show) and Hugh Miller. At least one of these was also translated into Finnish.
There are also several videos including ''The Dingles Down Under'', ''The Woolpackers'' and ''Don't Look Now! - The Dingles in Venice''.
Tbe book titles for the original, popular series of novelisations, are:
★ The Legacy (1) - stories from the original 1972 episodes
★ Prodigal's Progress (2)
★ All That A Man Has... (3)
★ Lovers' Meeting (4)
★ A Sad And Happy Summer (5)
★ A Sense Of Responsibility (6)
★ Nothing Stays The Same (7)
★ The Couple At Demdyke Row (8)
★ Whispers Of Scandal (9)
★ Shadows From The Past (10)
★ Lucky For Some (11)
★ Face Value (12)
★ Good Neighbours (13)
★ Innocent Victim (14)
★ False Witness (15)
★ The Homecoming (16) - first stories of 1980
★ Old Flames (17)
★ Wedding Bells (18)
★ Family Feuds (19)
★ Young Passions (20)
★ Another Door Opens (21)
★ A Friend In Need (22)
★ Divided Loyalties (23)
★ Wives And Lovers (24) - final novel of original series, featuring storylines from 1985
★ List of Emmerdale characters
★ List of recurring and minor Emmerdale characters
★ List of births, birthdays, marriages and deaths in Emmerdale
★ List of residences in Emmerdale
★
★
★ Classic telly
★ ''Emmerdale'' behind the scenes - filming locations revealed
★ ''Emmerdale'' at What's on TV
★ ''Emmerdale'' Resource & Fan Club News
'''Emmerdale''' (known as '''Emmerdale Farm''' until November 1989) is an award winning and critically acclaimed British soap opera, set in the fictional village of the same name (known as Beckindale until 1994) in West Yorkshire, England. Much of the action takes place within the fictional village pub, The Woolpack. The show was created by Kevin Laffan, with Keith Richardson serving as Executive Producer since 1986, and Kathleen Beedles serving as Series Producer since 2005 (she will be departing at the end of 2007).
''Emmerdale'' is the third highest-rating soap opera on British television, behind ''Coronation Street'' and ''EastEnders''.
The series is produced by Yorkshire Television (now known as ITV Productions) and broadcast on the ITV network, and was first aired on 16 October, 1972. It was originally conceived and broadcast as a daytime programme in an afternoon slot, moving to its current position as an early evening programme in 1978.
''Emmerdale'' is shown from Sunday to Friday at 7pm on ITV. Repeat episodes and the omnibus of the show can be seen on ITV2.
Origins
''Emmerdale Farm'' was originally modelled on the revolutionary soap-opera ''The Riordans'', made by RTÉ, Ireland's broadcaster, from the mid-1960s to the end of the 70s. ''The Riordans'' broke new ground for soap operas by being filmed largely out of doors (on a farm owned, in the storyline, by Tom and Mary Riordan), rather than, as was the norm in British and American soap operas, being almost totally shot in studios (even 'outdoor' scenes were traditionally filmed indoors). ''The Riordans'' pioneered location shooting, with real farm animals, and actors driving tractors. In the 1960s and 1970s, outdoor filming of television programmes using OBUs (Outdoor Broadcast Units) was in its infancy, due to the far higher costs involved, and the reliance on things like the weather that were out of the control of the programme makers.
The success of ''The Riordans'' showed that a soap opera could be filmed out of doors. Yorkshire Television sent people to ''The Riordans'' set in County Meath, Ireland to see the making of the programme at first hand.
On the basis of what they saw, the station began preparations for its own rural-based, outdoor-filmed, soap opera, called ''Emmerdale Farm''. As with ''The Riordans'', it was to be focused on one family, the Sugdens, and the name of their farm was also the name of the show.
Series background
The Miffield estate was the biggest employer in the village of Beckindale - situated 39 miles from Bradford and 52 miles from Leeds. Lord Miffield gave the lease of Emmerdale Farm, on the edge of the village, to the Sugden family in the 1850s out of gratitude, after Josh Sugden had sacrificed his life for the Earl's son in the Crimean War.
Josh's grandson Joseph married Margaret and they had a son Jacob. In the 1930s, Jacob Sugden supposedly purchased Emmerdale Farm for his family. In 1945 he married Annie Pearson - daughter of farm labourer Sam Pearson.
Jacob had run the farm into the ground, as he had drunk away most of the profits, leaving it in a sorry state. It was badly maintained, and the future of the farm looked bleak at the time of Jacob's death on the 10 October 1972.
Jacob left a wife Annie and three grown children, two sons, Jack (the eldest) and Joe (the youngest of the three), and daughter Peggy. These characters would form the basis of the series ''Emmerdale Farm''.
The first episode
The Sugden family in the first episode
The first episode of ''Emmerdale Farm'' opened with the funeral of Jacob Sugden on the 16 October 1972.
Jacob had upset the family by leaving the farm to his eldest son, Jack, who had not been seen since 1964 when, at the age of 18, he left his family, heritage and ''Beckindale'' - for London.
Jack Sugden returned to the farm in this opening episode, although he chose to stay away from the funeral - making his presence known only after the service, when the Sugdens returned to their home, Emmerdale Farm - where they found him waiting for them.
The first lines uttered in this first episode were spoken by Peggy Skilbeck:
"Matt, who’s she?"
Peggy was referring to Marian Wilks who was watching the funeral cortege whilst out riding.
The Wilkses proved to be new to the village; Marion's father Henry Wilks was a wealthy businessman.
In subsequent months, Jack sold a share of the Farm to Annie, Joe, Peggy and his grandfather Sam Pearson. Emmerdale Farm Ltd was formed after Henry Wilks bought Sam’s share of the estate.
The first episode is available free for UK viewers at ITV.com.
Evolution
Initially the show focused on the farm, and the Sugden family who lived on and ran it. As time went on, the show's focus moved to the nearby village of Beckindale. To reflect this change, the show's name was changed in November 1989 to ''Emmerdale'', and later the name of the village changed from Beckindale to Emmerdale. Coinciding with the soap's name change was the introduction of the Tates, who would emerge as the soap's leading family in the 1990s, overshadowing the Sugdens. In turn, the Tate family has since been supplanted, with the Dingle and King families taking centre stage in the early 2000s.
Emmerdale Online Channel
On the 21st May 2007 the ''Emmerdale'' online channel announced it would be continuing past the Who Killed Tom King? storyline. [1]
Village businesses
Despite being a small village, ''Emmerdale'' is a bustling place for business. The current businesses are:
★ ''Home Farm Estates'' (owned by Matthew, Jimmy and Carl King and run by Rodney Blackstock)
★ ''Butler's Farm'' (owned by ''Home Farm Estates'' and leased and run by Andy Sugden)
★ ''Val's Interiors'' (owned and run by Eric Pollard)
★ ''The Veterinary'' (owned by Paddy Kirk and Rosemary King and run by Paddy)
★ ''The Grange B&B'' (owned and run by Louise Appleton and Terry Woods)
★ ''Café Hope'' (owned and run by Viv and Bob Hope)
★ ''The Post Office'' (owned and run by Viv Hope)
★ ''King & Sons'' - who run haulage and bin collection services (owned by Matthew King (35%), Jimmy King (30%), Carl King (25%) and Scarlett Nicholls (10%) and run by Matthew, Jimmy and Carl King and Carrie Nicholls)
★ ''Emmerdale Exclusive Cleaning Services'' (owned by Eric Pollard and David Metcalfe and run by David)
★ ''Windsor and Dingle Garage'' (owned by Scott Windsor and Debbie Dingle and run by Debbie)
★ ''Debbie's Cars'' (owned and run by Chas and Debbie Dingle)
★ ''The Woolpack'' (owned and run by sisters Diane Sugden and Val Lambert)
Major storylines
Main articles: Major Storylines of Emmerdale
Until 1993, ''Emmerdale'' was largely ignored by press and viewers alike, in the face of much more well-known soaps such as ''Coronation Street'', ''EastEnders'' and ''Brookside''. This, however, was changed when ''Emmerdale's plane crash storyline brought ''Emmerdale'' into the public eye, consequently keeping the show as one of the most watched soap operas on British television. As well as the plane crash storyline, there have been several other major storylines, including the famous storm of 2003, the Kings River explosion of 2006, and, more recently, the murder of Tom King on Christmas Day, 2006.
Disasters
In addition to the sensational plane crash storyline, the woolpack was blown up in the 1990s, and recently Kings River showhome collapsed after several explosions caused by a gas leak. The collapse claimed threes lives: Noreen Bell and estate agent David Brown were killed in the explosion, and Dawn Woods later died in hospital from internal injuries.
Other disasters include:
★ 1995 - Luke McAllister died after his car crashed into a tree and exploded into flames.
★ 1996 - Dave Glover died in a fire after attending Biff and Linda's wedding.
★ 2000 - A van and minibus collide in the village. Van driver Pete Collins dies at the scene; minibus passenger Butch Dingle dies in hospital from his injuries the next day.
★ 2000 - Long-running character Sarah Sugden died in a barn fire.
★ 2001 - Miss Jean Strickland, the headmistress, was struck and killed by a stolen car driven by student Marc Reynolds on his way home from a night out with friends.
★ 2002 - The church was burnt down by schizophrenic Zoe Tate.
★ 2003 - A large storm hit Emmerdale, leaving parts of the village in ruins, with collapsed power lines and trees, The Woolpack was damaged by its chimney collapsing through the roof into the bar area, and also out the front, crushing Tricia Dingle and resulting in her dying in hospital a few days later; characters such as Ashley Thomas and Louise Appleton became stuck on the road as a result of the terrible weather. The disaster took place on the tenth anniversary of the plane crash.
★ 2005 - Shelly Williams fell off a boat in Scotland, and was never found.
★ 2005 - Zoe Tate and Callum Rennie destroyed ''Home Farm'' in a gas explosion for revenge on the King's before leaving Emmerdale.
★ 2005 - Max King died instantly when the Land Rover he was in went off the road and through a brick wall and exploded, although driver Andy Sugden escaped the car unharmed and gave a false story about the accident to avoid being arrested; and the police believed his version of events, as there were no witnesses to contradict his story.
★ 2006 - The vicarage burnt down after a stray spark ignited spilt vodka, with Debbie Dingle trapped inside.
★ 2006 - Tom King was murdered on Christmas Day when son Carl hit him over the head with a horse statue and pushed him out of a window.
★ 2007 - A tampered van driven by Billy Hopwood crashed into a lake and sank with him and Victoria Sugden inside, but they both survived.
Memorable exits
Emmerdale is famous for its extremely dramatic exit storylines. These characters would have made some of the most memorable exits from ''Emmerdale'' while still breathing. (For characters who left through death, see below).
★ 'Kim Tate' - Kim and her husband Steve Marchant stole a horse, intent on selling it, as they were experiencing a cash flow problem. As they where driving away from the scene, Steve ran over Kathy Glover. While in hospital, Kim managed to make Kathy believe that Steve had not stopped his vehicle when he had hit her, in order to make her husband seem to be the sole villain of the piece - even though she had helped to plan the thievery of the horse. On the day of trial in January 1999, with the lawyers questioning Kathy's validity as a witness for Steve's hit-and-run crime, Kathy herself came to question how true Kim's words had been. For this, and numerous other crooked tricks, the police were soon on her trail. She confronted Chris Tate to try to get hold of money as a means of escape, and knocked him out savagely with a paperweight when he would not comply. She left with her son James in a helicopter, never to be seen again. The pilot asked her if she was Kim Marchant, and with her final words on the soap she replied, "No, it's Kim Tate".
★ 'Charity Tate' - After Sadie King tricked Tom King into believing that Charity was having an affair with Cain Dingle, Tom called off the wedding to Charity. Despite later realising the lie, Tom was unable to convince Charity to reconcile with him, as all Charity wanted was revenge. She managed to get Jimmy King into bed after making him realise what Sadie was all about, and filmed them in bed together, and got him to confess that Sadie set her up. She took this tape to Tom and showed it to him in front of his whole family. Charity gave Sadie a punch and left the soap, despite an emotional plea from Tom King.
★ 'Zoe Tate' - Zoe was facing a court case for the attempted murder of Scott Windsor. After being blackmailed into selling Home Farm to Sadie King, she took revenge by blowing up the building; in her final scene, she waited in a car in front of the building waiting for the explosion, then drove off and out of the soap.
★ 'Cain Dingle' and 'Sadie King' - The couple kidnapped Tom King, with Sadie pretending to have been double-crossed by Cain. The story took a number of twists and turns, with Cain's car going over into a quarry, although it was later discovered to be empty, and Cain shooting Sadie, although it was later discovered that this was also faked. As they prepared to make their escape by plane, Cain betrayed Sadie, leaving her at the airfield, and he flew off over the village. Both Cain and Sadie left the soap.
★ 'Steph Forsythe' - Steph finally did the right thing, even though it could have been in better circumstances when she pleaded guilty to the murder of brother Terence. This was to serve her dues for the death of Shelly Williams. Steph was then sentenced to life imprisonment, although it was in fact her estranged husband Adam who did the deed.
Filming locations
Location shooting originally occurred in the village of Arncliffe in Littondale, one of the less frequented valleys of the Yorkshire Dales. In exterior shots, the village's hotel, The Falcon, was used to represent the fictional Woolpack Inn. Eventually the location of the shooting location became publicly known, which is perhaps what prompted the move to the village of Esholt in 1976, where it stayed for the next 22 years. This location also became a tourist attraction.
The original ''Emmerdale Farm'' buildings are near the village of Leathley.
From 1998 a purpose-built set on the Harewood estate is used, building on the Harewood estate started in 1996. The first scenes shot in the purpose-built set on the Harewood Estate were broadcast on 17th February 1998, from the front of the Woolpack (although some scenes were shot there from 1997).
The houses in the new village at Harewood are timber framed structures covered in stone cladding. The village is built on green belt land so all the buildings are classed as "temporary structures" and must be demolished within ten years unless new planning permission is given. There is no plan to demolish the set and new planning has now been drawn up. Although no church was built on the Harewood set, there is a churchyard full of gravestones, some of them for the characters who have died in the serial.
Location footage of the fictional market town of Hotten is shot in Otley. The Benton Park School in Rawdon and the primary school in Farnley are also used as shooting locations. Indoor scenes are mostly filmed in the ''Emmerdale'' production centre in Leeds (located next to the main YTV building). See on Google Earth here.
Visit Emmerdale Behind the Scenes for a full guided tour of all the filming locations used since 1972, right up to the present day.
Scheduling and popularity
''Emmerdale Farm'' started as an afternoon soap opera on the ITV Network in 1972. Soon after the start, the majority of ITV regions chose to accommodate the programme in the 7pm Tuesday and Thursday slot. Anglia Television and Thames Television preferred a Monday and Tuesday 5:15pm slot and saw the week's episodes before the rest of the network.
From 6 January 1988, all ITV regions networked the show in the Wednesday and Thursday 6.30pm slot. Anglia Television and Central Television chose to move the programme to 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays in February 1989, as they were screening the new daily Australian drama ''Home and Away'' in the ''Emmerdale Farm'' slot. This was the first time Anglia had screened ''Emmerdale Farm'' in the 7pm slot. Central were simply returning to the slots they used until December 1987. For a period Anglia and Central saw episodes one week later than other regions.
From January 1990 all other regions followed the Central and Anglia schedule in the familiar Tuesday and Thursday 7pm slot. Enjoying highs of 11 million viewers. During the mid 1990s Scottish Television used the 7pm slot to show daily regional programmes resulting in ''Emmerdale'' moving to 5:10pm. Scottish Television had always given preference to their own countryside soap opera ''Take the High Road'', which was accommodated in a 7pm slot. After only several months in the earlier slot Scottish returned ''Emmerdale'' to the 7pm slot.
Between 1993 and 1995, ''Emmerdale'' was shown in a daytime slot with a repeat of the previous evening episode.
By 1 January 1997 ITV had opted to increase their output to three episodes a week with the additional episode being screened on Wednesdays. From 2 October 2000 a further two episodes were added on a Monday and Friday evening. A sixth episode to air on Sundays began in 2004.
''Emmerdale'' is notable for being the first television soap opera in the UK to regularly produce six episodes a week, shown every night, except Saturday, at 7pm.
The show is now ranked high in the British popularity stakes, being outdone regularly only by the two major mainstream soaps, ''Coronation Street'' and ''EastEnders''.
★ On Christmas Day 2005 Emmerdale attracted 6.2 million viewers, when the villagers searched for Daz Eden and Belle Dingle who fell down a mine shaft.
★ On Monday 24 April 2006 8.5 million viewers watched as Sam Dingle and Alice Wilson got married.
★ On Monday 25 December 2006 over 7 million viewers watched as Tom King got pushed out of a window and fell to his death on his wedding day to Rosemary Sinclair.
Recent hour-long episodes which have competed with ''EastEnders'' have won the battle for viewing figures, establishing itself as a serious contender as the second most popular British Soap. The village soap has gone head to head with BBC's ''EastEnders'' on several occasions over the past couple of years and emerged on top.
★ The Kings River house collapse (13 July, 2006): ''Emmerdale'' won in the ratings battle here.
★ Billy Hopwood, with Victoria Sugden, crashed his truck into a lake (1 February 2007): ''Emmerdale'' won here too, surprisingly since ''EastEnders'' episode involved an important storyline involving two of its most high profile characters, Martin and Sonia Fowler, leaving. ''Emmerdale'' attracted 8 million viewers with ''EastEnders'' gaining 6.5 million viewers.
★ The Who Killed Tom King? plot came to a close on Thursday 17 May, 2007, when the murderer was revealed. ''Emmerdale'' gained an average 8.6 million viewers, which peaked to 9.1 million viewers when Tom's son Carl confessed to the murder, between 7pm and 8pm. ''EastEnders'' could manage only 4 million between 7.30pm and 8pm.
Old episodes of ''Emmerdale Farm'' were repeated in the 1990s on Sky Soap, the episodes shown in March 1997 were from the early 1970s, but by the time Sky Soap ended in April 1999 the episodes shown were from 1988.
In July 1998, episodes from the first episode of the renamed soap were repeated on Granada Plus, and the 2001 episodes were being shown when the channel ended in October 2004.
Overseas
Ireland
''Emmerdale'' reaches viewers in the Republic of Ireland via both the widely available UTV from Northern Ireland and the TV3 Television Network in the Irish Republic. UTV and TV3 screen ''Emmerdale'' simultaneously in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Sweden
''Emmerdale'' has been shown in Sweden since the 1970s Рoriginally on TV2 and since 1994 on commercial channel TV4. Under the title ''Hem till g̴rden'' ("Home to the Farm"), the programme is broadcast at 12.25 on Monday to Friday lunchtimes (apart from a regular summer break). The episodes currently being screened (early 2007) date from 2004. Currently TV4 are screening the 17th block of 150 purchased episodes.
Finland
The programme is shown in Finland on commercial channel MTV3, where it goes out at 17.30 Mondays to Fridays with a repeat of each episode at 10.20 on the following weekday.
New Zealand
TV One in New Zealand shows the programme each weekday lunchtime at 12.30.
Australia
''Emmerdale'' was shown in Australia for the first time in July 2006 when cable television provider Foxtel began screening episodes from 2006 on its UK.TV channel.
Romania
On 2 February 2007 it was announced that ''Emmerdale'' would be broadcast on the Romanian free-to-air channel Pro TV. The station has bought 50 episodes of the soap dating back to 2000.
Elsewhere
★ Satellite channel Granada UKTV is currently showing the programme in the Middle East, Cyprus, and Malta.
★ Members of the British Forces and their families can watch ''Emmerdale'' on BFBS TV1, which is also available free-to-air in the Falkland Islands.
Trivia
★ The programme's title was changed from ''Emmerdale Farm'' to ''Emmerdale'' in November 1989; in the storyline, the village name was changed from Beckindale to Emmerdale in 1994.
★ All of the main characters in ''Bottom'' were avid fans of ''Emmerdale''. When ''Emmerdale Farm'' changed its name to ''Emmerdale'', the characters mused that this might be because it shortened the time needed for the audience to read its name, providing the writers with more screen time to fill with story arcs.
★ In the episode broadcast on 24 July 2006, Val Lambert visits Noreen Bell's house for the first time since Noreen was killed in the blast. She picks up a television magazine turned to the day of the disaster. While most of the schedule is as would normally be expected on a Thursday night, the 7pm slot on ITV shows a programme called ''Castle Bridge'' rather than ''Emmerdale''. The magazine also schedules ''The Bill'' at 8pm, where it would normally be broadcast, however, for this week only, it was actually replaced with ''PokerFace''.
★ Creskeld Hall (Home Farm) is one of the few original filming locations used in the entire run of the series and has been involved in many storylines.
★ Network DVD has announced three special DVD releases on October 15 2007 a 6 disc set of 35 years of the show. as well as the best of on a 2 disc set. And all of the 1972 episodes on a 4 disc set.
Series producers
★ David Goddard (October 1972 - January 1973)
★ Peter Holmans (January 1973 - July 1973)
★ Robert D Cardona (July 1973 - 1976)
★ Michael Glynn (1976 - June 1979)
★ Anne Gibbons (June 1979 - October 1983)
★ Richard Handford (October 1983 - 1986)
★ Michael Russell (1986 - March 1988)
★ Stuart Doughty (March 1988 - December 1991)
★ Morag Bain (December 1991 - 1993)
★ Nicholas Prosser (1993 - 1994)
★ Mervyn Watson (1994 - 1998)
★ Kieran Roberts (1998 - April 2001)
★ Steve Frost (April 2001 - 2005)
★ Kathleen Beedles (2005 - )
Spin-offs
Several ''Emmerdale'' books, fiction and non-fiction, have been produced, a number written by Lance Parkin (who had been a storyliner on the TV show) and Hugh Miller. At least one of these was also translated into Finnish.
There are also several videos including ''The Dingles Down Under'', ''The Woolpackers'' and ''Don't Look Now! - The Dingles in Venice''.
Tbe book titles for the original, popular series of novelisations, are:
★ The Legacy (1) - stories from the original 1972 episodes
★ Prodigal's Progress (2)
★ All That A Man Has... (3)
★ Lovers' Meeting (4)
★ A Sad And Happy Summer (5)
★ A Sense Of Responsibility (6)
★ Nothing Stays The Same (7)
★ The Couple At Demdyke Row (8)
★ Whispers Of Scandal (9)
★ Shadows From The Past (10)
★ Lucky For Some (11)
★ Face Value (12)
★ Good Neighbours (13)
★ Innocent Victim (14)
★ False Witness (15)
★ The Homecoming (16) - first stories of 1980
★ Old Flames (17)
★ Wedding Bells (18)
★ Family Feuds (19)
★ Young Passions (20)
★ Another Door Opens (21)
★ A Friend In Need (22)
★ Divided Loyalties (23)
★ Wives And Lovers (24) - final novel of original series, featuring storylines from 1985
Lists
★ List of Emmerdale characters
★ List of recurring and minor Emmerdale characters
★ List of births, birthdays, marriages and deaths in Emmerdale
★ List of residences in Emmerdale
External links
★
★
★ Classic telly
★ ''Emmerdale'' behind the scenes - filming locations revealed
★ ''Emmerdale'' at What's on TV
★ ''Emmerdale'' Resource & Fan Club News
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