ITV - EMMERDALE

 

HOME | BIOLOGY | FILMS | GEOGRAPHY | HISTORY | INDEX | INVESTORS | MUSIC | SOLAR BOATS | SPORT

 

 

 

Emmerdale (known as Emmerdale Farm until 1989) is a British television soap opera set in the fictional West Yorkshire village of the same name (known as Beckindale until 1994). Much of the action takes place within the fictional village pub, The Woolpack. The show was created by Kevin Laffan. It is the third highest-rating soap opera on British television, behind Coronation Street and EastEnders.

 

The series is produced by Yorkshire Television (YTV) and broadcast on the ITV network, and was first aired on October 16, 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 the 1980s.

 

Emmerdale is shown from Sunday to Friday at 7pm on ITV1. Repeat episodes and omnibuses of the show can be seen on ITV2.

 

 

 

Preview: Thurs 7th Dec, 7.00pm What are these two so happy about?

 

Emmerdale BBC TV soap news about baby

 

 

Catch Up: Weds 6th Dec, 7.00pm Did Laurel confide in Jasmine about her pregnancy?

 

Emmerdale BBC TV soap  Laurel and Jasmine pregnancy

 

 

News: Jean jets off Jean shocks village when she leaves with TJ & Tom's money!

 

Emmerdale BBC TV soap Jean and TJ leave with Tom's money

 

 

Feature: Gone to Potts! Take a look back at Ashley & Laurel's rocky marriage.

 

Emmerdale BBC TV soap Ashley and Laurel rocky marriage

 

 

Interviews: Susan Penhaligon  Jean Hope talks about leaving the village.

 

Emmerdale BBC TV soap Susan Penhaligon talks about Jean Hope leaving

 

 

Origins of Emmerdale

 

Emmerdale Farm was originally modelled on the revolutionary soap-opera The Riordans, made by RTÉ, Ireland's broadcaster, from the 1960s to the mid 1970s. The Riordans broke the mould 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 filmed in studios. (Even 'outdoor' scenes were traditionally filmed indoors.) The Riordans pioneered location shooting, with real farm animals, 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 in 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.

 

 

Evolution of Emmerdale

 

Initially the show focused on the farm Emmerdale Farm, and the Sugden family who lived on and ran that farm. 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 1989 to Emmerdale. Coinciding with the 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 mid/late 1990s.

 

 

Filming Location

 

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 town's hotel, The Falcon, was used to represent the fictional Woolpack Hotel. Eventually the location of the shooting location became publicly known, which is perhaps what prompted the move to the village of Esholt. This location also became a tourist attaction. Now a purpose built set in Harewood is used. 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). Follow this link and if you have Google Earth, click on 'Open This Placemark' to go to a high-resolution satellite image of the YTV set on the Harewood estate.

 

 

Plane Crash Storyline 1993

 

Until 1993, the show was largely ignored by press and viewers alike in the face of much more well known soaps such as Coronation Street, EastEnders and Brookside. However, a sensational plotline involving a plane crashing on to the village of Beckindale killing many long standing characters and leading to the onscreen renaming of Beckindale to Emmerdale (the village name change was a tribute to the Sugden Family whose farm was known as Emmerdale Farm) gained a lot of press and audience attention, rating 18 million viewers for the series of special episodes and cemented the show's place among the top UK soaps. This plot line attracted controversy due to the similarity to the Lockerbie disaster: it was aired near to the time of the fifth anniversary of that disaster.

 

 

 

Stormy conditions at Emmerdale

 

 

The Storm 2004

 

Emmerdale was to experience another big disaster ten years on from the plane crash as a storm put villagers in peril. The storyline paved the way for Tricia Dingle's exit storyline and provide a lot of new year drama and a ratings boost for the show. The storm hit the village on New Year's Eve 2003 and saw popular characters such as Ashley Thomas, Louise Appleton and Nicola Blackstock become stuck on the roads as a result of the terrible weather. The episode also focused on Marlon and Tricia Dingle. Marlon had had a one-night stand with his cousin Charity Tate when Tricia was in India and when Tricia learned about her husband's infidelity she decided to leave him and the Dales. However upon reading the 101 reasons as to why Marlon loved her, she decided to reconcile with him and headed back to The Woolpack. However, when she was just outside the pub, lighting stuck an oak tree which caused Tricia to trip, and another bolt hit the roof of The Woolpack causing the roof to collapse and the chimney to fall through. This in turn caused the wall of the pub to collapse onto a helpless Tricia. She was taken to hospital critically injured and was put on life support until Marlon decided to finally let her go. Ashley and Louise were rescued from the rubble in an extension of the storyline which saw popular character Bernice Thomas make a brief return. Ratings soared and the storyline went down in Emmerdale history. The year to come would see the show gain an even higher profile.

 

 

Kings River Explosion 2006

 

On Thursday 13 July 2006, The Kings unveiled their brand new showhome which was to house married couple, Marlon Dingle and Donna Windsor-Dingle. But when local resident, Noreen Bell opened a cupboard door inside the house it triggered a spark that let rip a huge gas explosion which catapulted her down the stairs. The explosion ripped through the bathroom floor tossing Jimmy King and Sadie King to opposite sides of the bathroom. The estate agent David Brown, who was located near the cupboard, was set alight. While running towards the house Marlon and Donna were also thrown back by another explosion. Debris started to fly towards the residents as the house started to explode in various places. Diane Sugden was knocked out by a collapsing ceiling while Danny Daggert and Dawn Woods, who were running behind her, got caught in another explosion. The bathroom floor gave way and Jimmy fell through, shortly followed by Sadie. The house then fully collapsed as the residents of Emmerdale stood in shock. Three were confirmed dead: Noreen Bell, who was hit by the full force of the initial explosion and died instantly, Dawn Woods, who was rescued from the rubble but later died in hospital as a result of internal injuries, and the estate agent David Brown.

 

 

Interactive Storyline

 

In October 2006, ITV announced plans for a fully interactive storyline, surrounding the death of Tom King, who will be killed off on Christmas Day, 2006. The ensuing weeks will be full of twists and turns as some of the show’s most popular characters are placed at the centre of the enquiry, facing fierce interrogation in the hunt for the killer - the police are determined to leave no stone unturned.

 

In a world first, the whole storyline is to be fully interactive allowing viewers the opportunity of becoming super sleuths to help solve the crime via a dedicated ITV online portal. To be launched in November, it will consist of blogs, clues, secret e-mails and voicemails. Emmerdale Online is being created for ITV by Branded Storytelling producers Hoodlum. 

 

The viewer will be taken inside the show and have direct online interaction with the storyline. The cast will be seen trying to piece together the murder and their findings will, in turn, be immediately available for viewers to tap into online.

 

To add to the mystery, and for the first time ever, Emmerdale will film 10 secret scenes, each showing a different suspect committing the murder and therefore enabling 10 different possible outcomes. As a result, even the cast and crew won’t know who the killer is.

 

The official "Who Killed Tom King?" website: 

First Clue: The Death Treat sent December 25th,

 

You've lied. You've cheated.
You've stolen.
You've murdered.
The law can't get you.

So I will.

 

Second Clue: The names of the ten Emmerdale murder 'suspects' are revealed. 

The suspects were named as:

 

Jamie Hope
Chastity Dingle
Matthew King
Jimmy King
Carl King
Len Reynolds
Bob Hope
Rosemary King
Grayson Sinclair
Terry Woods

 

Popularity and Scheduling

 

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. In 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 slot. This was the first time Anglia had screened Emmerdale 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. 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 accommodated a 7pm slot. 

 

After only several months in the earlier slot Scottish returned Emmerdale to the 7pm slot. By this time ITV had opted to increase their output to three episodes a week with the additional episode being screened on Wednesdays. In 2000 a further two episodes were added on a Monday and Friday evening. A sixth one to air on Sundays began in 2004.

 

The show is now ranked high in the British popularity stakes, being outdone regularly only by the two major mainstream British soaps, EastEnders and Coronation Street. However, recent hour-long episodes which have competed with EastEnders have won the battle for viewing figures.

 

On Christmas Day 2005 Emmerdale attracted 6.2 million viewers where 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.

 

Emmerdale is notable for being the first television soap opera in the UK (and possibly the world) to regularly produce six episodes a week, shown every night, except Saturday, at 7 p.m.

 

 

Overseas

 

Outside the UK, Emmerdale reaches viewers in the Republic of Ireland, where UTV from Northern Ireland is widely available, although TV3 also show the programme.

 

The programme is also aired in Sweden under the title Hem till gården which translates to Home to the Farm, In Sweden it has been shown since the 1970s (originally on TV2, and then on commercial channel TV4 since 1994). TV4 resumed the programme after its regular summer break on 4 September 2006. Episodes are shown at 12.25pm with a repeat on their TV4+ channel in the evening at 5.10pm and a third opportunity to watch the following morning around 11.30am on TV4. 

 

Episodes most recently screened were from 2003. It also airs in Finland, where it is currently aired five days a week by MTV3. Although four years behind today's episodes, the programme is also popular in Canada on the CBC, three days a week at 2:00 p.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time). It is also being shown in New Zealand on TV One at 12.30pm, and is currently shown on Granada UKTV in the Middle East.

 

Emmerdale was shown in Australia for the first time in July 2006 when UK.TV on cable television provider Foxtel began screening episodes from 2006.

 

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.

 

 

Disasters in Emmerdale

 

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:

  • 1996 - Dave Glover dies in a fire after attending Biff and Linda's wedding.

  • 2000 - Pete and Butch are killed in a bus crash.

  • 2000 - Long-running character Sarah Sugden dies in a barn fire.

  • 2001 - Miss Jean Strickland, the headmistress, is struck and killed by a car driven by some of her students.

  • 2002 - The church is burnt down by schizophrenic Zoe Tate.

  • 2004 - The village is hit by a storm, Tricia Dingle is crushed beneath a falling chimney when the Woolpack is struck by lightning, and later dies in hospital.

  • 2005 - Zoe Tate and Callum Rennie destroy Home Farm in a gas explosion for revenge on the King's before leaving Emmerdale.

  • 2005 - Max King dies instantly when the Land Rover he's in goes off the road and through a brick wall and explodes.

  • 2006 - The vicarage burnt down after a stray spark ignited spilt vodka, with Debbie Dingle trapped inside.

  • 2006 - The Kings' show home explodes and collapses, leaving several trapped in the rubble, Noreen Bell and estate agent David Brown are killed in the explosion, whilst Dawn Woods later dies of internal injuries in hospital.

 

 

Memorable Exits

 

(Those who left through death are listed below.)

  • Cain Dingle & 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 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 him it in front of his whole family. Charity gave Sadie a punch and left the soap despite an emotional plea from Tom King.

  • Steph Forsythe finally did the right thing, even though it could have been in better circumstances 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.

 

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). 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.

 

 

LINKS and REFERENCE

 

 

 

SOAPS: 

 

CASUALTY | CORRIE | EASTENDERS | EMMERDALE | HOLBY | NEIGHBOURS | THE BILL

 

BRITISH ACADEMY TV AWARDS | BRITISH SOAP AWARDS | NATIONAL TV AWARDS

 

  ROYAL TV SOCIETY AWARDS

 

 

 

 

A - Z FILMS INDEX

 

 

 

A PERFECT STORM

ALIEN

AUSTIN POWERS

BABE

BACK TO THE FUTURE

BATMAN

BRAVEHEART

CAST AWAY

CATWOMAN

CON AIR

CROCODILE DUNDEE

DEAD CALM

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

DIE HARD

DISCLOSURE

DR. NO

ERIN BROCKOVICH

FIRE ON THE AMAZON

FREE WILLY

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

GLADIATOR

GOLDFINGER

HORNBLOWER

JAMES BOND

JAWS

JURASSIC PARK

KING KONG

MAN ON FIRE

MASTER and COMMANDER

MEDICINE MAN

MEN OF HONOUR

MUMMY RETURNS

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY

NAKED GUN

NATIONAL TREASURE

 

 

OVERBOARD

PAYBACK

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

P2 DEAD MANS CHEST

RACE THE SUN

RAMBO

ROB ROY

ROXANNE

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC

SEABISCUIT

SPEED

SPIDERMAN

STAR GATE

THE 39 STEPS

THE AVIATOR

THE COUNT OF MONTE CHRISTO

THE DAMBUSTERS

THE FLY

THE PATRIOT

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

THE TERMINATOR

THE THING

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

THE WORLDS FASTEST INDIAN

THUNDERBALL

TITANIC

TOP GUN

TREASURE ISLAND

TROY

TRUE GRIT

UNFORGIVEN

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE

WAR OF THE WORLDS  

ZULU

 

 

 

 

A - Z ACTORS INDEX

 

 

 

Angelina Jolie

Anthony Hopkins

Arnold Shwazenneger

Arnold Vosloo

Brad Pitt

Brendan Fraser

Bruce Willis

Catherine Zeta Jones

Charlize Theron

Chris Cooper

Clint Eastwood

Daniel Craig

Demi Moore

Denzel Washington

Eric Bana

Eva Green

George Clooney

Gerard Depardieu

Goldie Hawn

Gregory Peck

Halle Berry

Harvey Keitel

Humphrey Bogart

Ian Holm

Ingrid Bergman

Jack Black

Jack Nicholson

James Cromwell

Jean Reno

 

 

Jeff Bridges

Jim Carrey

Joaquin Phoenix

John Hurt

John Travolta

John Wayne

Johnny Depp

Judi Dench

Julia Roberts

Julie Andrews

Kate Winslett

Keanu Reeves

Keira Knightley

Kevin Spacey

Kirsten Dunst

Kurt Russell

Leonardo di Caprio

Liam Neeson

Linda Kozlowski

Lindsay Lohan

Mads Mikkelsen

Marlon Brando

Matthew McConaughey

Mel Gibson

Michael Cain

Michael Douglas

Michael J Fox

Michael Keaton

Morgan Freeman

 

 

Naomi Watts

Nicholas Cage

Nicole Kidman

Orlando Bloom

Paul Bettany

Paul Hogan

Pierce Brosnan

Rachel Weisz

Richard Gere

Robert de Niro

Roger Moore

Russell Crowe

Sam Neil

Samuel L Jackson

Sandra Bullock

Sean Connery

Sharon Stone

Sigourney Weaver

Stanley Baker

Steve Martin

Steven Segal

Slyvester Stalone

Tim Roth

Tobey Maguire

Tom Cruise

Tom Hanks

Tommy Lee Jones

Uma Thurman

Willem Dafoe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

A taste for adventure capitalists

 

 

Solar Cola - a healthier alternative

 

 

This website is Copyright © 1999 & 2006  NJK.   The bird logo and name Solar Navigator are trademarks. All rights reserved.  All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged.       Max Energy Limited is an educational charity.

 AUTOMOTIVE  |  BLUEBIRD  |  ELECTRIC CARS  |  ELECTRIC CYCLES  |  SOLAR CARS