Emmerdale

 Click on picture for the Official ITV Emmerdale website. 

Emmerdale

   Emmerdale is shown on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:00 and on a Thursday at 19:00 and 20:00. Every episode lasts around 29/30 minutes (including commercials). There is around 22 minutes of footage per episode without adverts and repeats episodes and the omnibus of the show can be seen on ITV2. Over 5000 episodes have now been made.

   Emmerdale, also known as Emmerdale Farm until 1989, has been broadcasted on ITV since 1972. It was created by Kevin Laffan, with Steve Frost as Executive and Producer and Gavin Blyth as Series Producer since 2009. It was first aired on 16 October 1972 and the series is produced by Yorkshire Television. It is set in the fictional village of Emmerdale (earlier known as Beckindale until 1994) in West Yorkshire, England. The original concept was for a daytime programme in an afternoon slot, but after its success it received an early evening slot in 1978, however not showing in London and Anglia until the mid 1980s. Up until then they always took seasonal breaks and was not broadcast all year round. The first Christmas broadcast took place in 1988.

   The basic premise of Emmerdale Farm was focused on a family, a farm, and characters in a nearby village which was very similar to the popular first ever BBC radio soap opera The Archers. Emmerdale Farm broke moulds with its filming basing the techniques on the Irish soap The Riordan’s broadcast from the mid 1960s to the end of 1970s. It was filmed mainly outdoors set on a real farm which, in the storyline, was owned by Tom and Mary Riordan. This contrasted with the typical filming of soaps in the time with manufactured indoor sets in warehouses and very little footage of outside. This meant that real buildings, animals and even actors driving tractors were used but it also meant that weather was very temperamental and filming was difficult and expensive.

   The basis for the story of Emmerdale farm was from the 1930s where Jacob Sugden, with his wife Annie, purchased Emmerdale Farm for his family. He ran the farm into the ground through drink and on his death it was in a dire state. He left behind Annie and his 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 started at Jacob’s funeral, with his eldest son returning from London to inherit the farm.

   As time went on the show shifted focus from the Sugden Family and the farm to the near by village of Beckindale and its inhabitants. This was reflected in the change of the shows name to just Emmerdale and subsequently the change of Beckindale to Emmerdale in 1994. This also brought about the introduction of a new family The Tates who became the leading family in the 1990s over the Sugdens. This however changed again with the Dingles and then later the King family taking the limelight. In 2001, Emmerdale made history for having the first reality show selection for a new family which upset existing cast members but their stint was brief and none remained in the cast a year later.  For a while Emmerdale was not classed as a popular soap until the 1993 storyline of the plane crash brought 18 million views, their highest ever rating, and it became one of the most watched soap operas in the UK.

Settings...

Emmerdale may be a small village but it has many businesses and meeting places. These include:

Home Farm Estates (owned and run by Mark and Natasha Wylde also run by Nathan Wylde and Nicola De Souza)
The Stables (owned and run by Katie Sugden)
Butler's Farm (owned by Home Farm Estates) and run by John Barton and family.
The Veterinary (owned by Paddy Kirk, run by Paddy and Pearl Ladderbanks)
The Grange B&B (owned by Terry Woods and Val Pollard, run by Terry and Val Pollard)
Post Office/Café Hope (owned and run by Bob Hope, Viv Hope and Brenda Walker)
Emmerdale Haulage (owned and run by Jimmy and Carl King)
Emmerdale Exclusive Cleaning Services (owned and run by David Metcalfe)
Windsor and Dingle Garage (owned by Debbie Dingle, run by Debbie and Cain Dingle)
Debbie's Cars (owned by Chas and Debbie Dingle, run by Debbie)
The Woolpack (owned and run by Diane Sugden)
Home Farm Fayre (owned by Home Farm Estates run by Douglas Potts)

Cast and Characters...

Emmerdale has a large cast but here a few of the characters as described by the producers:

Here is an example of a trailer for Emmerdale showing the return of a character called Charity. It uses fictional footage to represent storylines and is something to consider when thinking about our own trailer.