History of Emmerdale

How it all started

On 16th October 1972, a new TV drama series aired in the afternoon, created by Kevin Laffan and produced by Yorkshire TV, called Emmerdale Farm. It focused on the lives of the Sugden family, their farm and their neighbours who lived in Beckindale.

The first episode introduced us to the Sugdens as they mourned at the funeral for Jacob, head of the household. Jacob upset the family by leaving the farm to his eldest son, Jack, who had left the family, farm and village when he was 18 to find his fortune in London as a writer. When the funeral party returned to the farm house, they were surprised to find Jack waiting for them.

After turbulent months trying to settle back into village life, Jack sold a share of Emmerdale Farm to his mother Annie, brother Joe, sister Peggy and his grandfather Sam Pearson. Emmerdale Farm Ltd was formed after Henry Wilks, who was also the co-owner of the village pub, bought Sam's share of the estate.

The evening shift...

After allowing the audience to get to know the Sugden family, the show started to introduce the characters that lived in the nearby village of Beckindale. This proved so popular that in November 1978 the show moved to an early evening time slot.

New executive producer Keith Richardson, who was in charge of the programme for 24 years, started to introduce more exciting and dramatic storylines such as Pat Sugden's 1986 car crash and the 1988 Crossgill fire.

The show started to grow in popularity and transformed from a daytime, rural drama with only a couple of episodes a week into one of the UK's major soaps, broadcasting every weekday evening.

In November 1989, the show's title was changed to Emmerdale and new characters began to arrive including the Tate family who took over Home Farm estates. The Tates were a big part of village life for over a decade and were involved in some of the show's most dramatic storylines.

In 1994, the village was also changed from Beckindale to Emmerdale after the village was devastated when a plane crashed into the Dales. As well as claiming the lives of four villagers, the plane crash gave Emmerdale its highest ever ratings and catapulted it into a different league. Suddenly the press and new viewers took notice and started to include Emmerdale when they talked about the UK's best soaps.

The show became one of the most watched soap operas on British television.

Moving forward...

The dramatic storylines continued through the 90s with the Tates emerging as one of the best families the show had ever had and the introduction of the Dingles, who brought as much comedy to the show as the Tates did drama.

After their arrival, the Tates remained in Home Farm for 16 years with various family members leaving and being killed off before the last, Zoe, left in 2005.

The Dingles introduced more family members throughout the years, some making brief appearances and others becoming permanent residents in the village - but all of them leaving their mark on Emmerdale.

Emmerdale continued to produce exciting episodes throughout the early 2000s including the mini bus crash that killed Butch Dingle, the barn fire that claimed the life of Sarah Sugden, Jack's second wife and a devastating Storm that took place ten years after the plane crash.

There was murder, car crashes and explosions galore at Home Farm and the Kings River Housing development.

There was an influx of new characters as the King family started buying up the village and the Dingle clan expanded with the arrival of Cain and Charity who both made an impact on the village before leaving in dramatic fashion only to both return in 2009.

Modern times...

In 2007, Emmerdale celebrated it's 35th birthday with a dramatic storyline that revealed the truth about the barn fire, which took place in 2000 and resulted in the death of Sarah Sugden, Jack's second wife. The fire was started by Jack's adopted son Andy, who was eventually sent to prison.

The glamourous Wylde family took over Home Farm but the curse of the property on its residents continued when wife Natasha shot her husband Mark over his bigamy and affair. The episode in which Mark met his demise gave Emmerdale its highest ratings since March 2006 with 9.96 million viewers watching after a week-long online 'Whodunnit?'

In 2008, Clive Hornby, the actor who played Jack Sugden and was the longest-serving cast member died after a long illness. In tribute to the actor, his character died off screen in 2009 with the episode of Jack's funeral dedicated to Clive. It mirrored the very first episode of Emmerdale with Sheila Mercier (Annie Sugden) and Karl Davies (Robert Sugden) returning to the village.

Ratings continued to be up and down with the show averaging 5-7 million so at the beginning of 2009, in a bid to take on Coronation St and Eastenders, Gavin Blyth took over as Series Producer when Keith Richardson and Timothy J Fee retired.

Gavin set to work in axing existing characters who had stalled, reinvented others and introduced new characters including the Barton and Sharma families. Exciting new storyline ideas gave a new direction to the show and gave the cast and crew a new energy that resulted in a dramatic rise in viewing figures.

n 2010, the Aaron Livesy storyline which saw the troubled teen finally confess he was gay, the subsequent self loathing and his relationship with Jackson Walsh, earnt the show more nominations for the show and actor Danny Miller than ever before.

The Maceys arrived into the village and after a entanglement with the Wyldes, took over Home Farm. Jackson Walsh and his mother Hazel, played by Pauline Quirke, moved to Emmerdale when Jackson was involved in a traumatic train crash that left him a tetraplegic - one of the most extreme disabilities ever portrayed in a soap.

It was at the end of 2010 that Emmerdale suffered a massive blow as Gavin sadly died just a few weeks after being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 41. Cast, crew and viewers were distraught as the loss of the man who reinvented the Dales.

2011 was the start of a new era for Emmerdale as they screened the rest of Gavin's Blyth's legacy and a new Series Producer was introduced. Stuart Blackburn was promoted from within the Emmerdale family, having worked alongside Gavin as a story editor.

Stuart rejuvenated older characters such as Val and Eric Pollard whilst introducing a new family to the Dales. Tough cookie Rachel Breckle arrived, slowly followed by the rest of the Spencer clan including sister Ali and her new girlfriend Ruby.

The year started off with a fire that claimed the lives of Viv Hope and Terry Woods and the summer saw one of Emmerdale's most controversial story lines come to fruition as tetraplegic Jackson Walsh committed suicide with the help of his mother and boyfriend Aaron.

Come the autumn and bad boy Cain Dingle had more enemies than you could shake a stick at. It was Judgement Day. Cain got a beating that left him fighting for his life. A beating that was revealed to be at the hand of his disgusted dad Zak.

As for 2012, its Emmerdale's 40th anniversary. We already know that James Thornton (John Barton) and the show's superstar Danny Miller (Aaron Livesy) will both have left the show by the spring, in dramatic fashion we might add. Much loved British actress Gaynor Faye will join the show as Megan Macey but how will Emmerdale mark this milestone year?

We'll just have to wait and see...