Information AboutEmmerdale |
''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 Tractor s. 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 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. {Link without Title} VILLAGE BUSINESSES Despite being a small village, ''Emmerdale'' is a bustling place for business. The current businesses are:
MAJOR STORYLINES See Also: 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 and estate agent David Brown were killed in the explosion, and Dawn Woods later died in hospital from internal injuries. Other disasters include:
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 ).
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 '', 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''.
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.
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 – originally on TV2 and since 1994 on commercial channel TV4 . Under the title ''Hem till gården'' ("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 Romania n free-to-air channel Pro TV . The station has bought 50 episodes of the soap dating back to 2000. Elsewhere
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SERIES PRODUCERS
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:
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