Emmerdale

For the 1994 debut album by The Cardigans, see Emmerdale (album).

{{Infobox television | show_name = Emmerdale | image = Emmerdale titles.png | caption = | show_name_2 = Emmerdale Farm (1972–89) | genre = Soap opera | picture_format = 576i (1972)
4:3 (1972–2001)
16:9 (2002–11)
1080i HD (2011–present) | runtime = 22 mins (excluding advertisements) | creator = Kevin Laffan | country = United Kingdom | starring = Present cast
Former cast | theme_music_composer = Tony Hatch | network = ITV | first_aired = 16 October 1972 (1972-10-16) | last_aired = present
(52 years, 31 days) | num_episodes = 7388 Location shooting was originally filmed in the village of Arncliffe in Littondale, a quiet valley in the Yorkshire Dales. The Falcon, the village hotel, was the fictional Woolpack Inn. When the filming location became public it was moved to the village of Esholt in 1976, where it remained for 22 years.

The original Emmerdale Farm buildings are near the village of Leathley. Creskeld Hall (Home Farm), one of the few original filming locations used for the entire series, has been involved in many storylines.

Construction of a purpose-built set began on the Harewood estate in 1996, and it has been used since 1997. The first scenes filmed on the set (the front of The Woolpack) were broadcast on 17 February 1998. The Harewood set is a replica of Esholt, with minor alterations.

The Harewood houses are timber-framed and stone-faced. The village is built on green-belt land, with its buildings classified as "temporary structures" which must be demolished within ten years unless new planning permission is received. There is no plan to demolish the set, and a new planning application has been drawn up. The set includes a church and churchyard, where the characters who have died on the series are buried.

Butlers Farm is Brookland Farm, a working farm in the nearby village of Eccup. Farmyard and building exteriors are filmed at Brookland, with interior house shots filmed in the studio.

Location filming is also done in the City of Leeds and other West Yorkshire locations; the fictional market town of Hotten is Otley, on the outskirts of Leeds. The Benton Park School in Rawdon and the primary school in Farnley were also used for filming. Interiors are primarily filmed at Yorkshire Television's Emmerdale Production Centre in Leeds, next to Yorkshire's Leeds Studios. As of 28 March 2011, HD-capable studios in the ITV Studios building were used for most of the interior scenes.

Four farms have been featured on Emmerdale:

• "Original" Emmerdale Farm (1972–1993) – Belonged to the Sugden family for many years, until subsidence forced them to move. Filming location: Lindley House
• Hawthorn Cottage (1993–1997) – Matt and Peggy's former home, the second Emmerdale Farm, was sold and converted into a quarry. Filming location: Bank Side Farm
• Melby Farm (1997–2002) – A third Emmerdale Farm went bankrupt, and Jack moved into Annie's old cottage (Tenant’s Cottage) in the village. Filming location: Burden Head Farm
• Butler’s Farm (2003 to present) – Acquired by Andy Sugden and Katie Addyman in 2003 before the Bartons took over in 2009. Filming location: Brookland Farm

Sponsors

Emmerdale's first sponsor (from 14 December 1999 to 20 February 2002) was Daz detergent, followed by Heinz Tomato Ketchup and Heinz salad cream from May 2003 to May 2005). Reckitt Benckiser took over until 2009, advertising Calgon, Air Wick, Veet and Lemsip. Tombola Bingo underwrote the show from November 2009 to March 2012, followed by Bet365 Bingo until March 2014. McCain Foods began a two-year, £8 million sponsorship on 7 April 2014.

Longest-appearing actors

The seven actors who have appeared in the series for over 20 years are listed in the table below; the longest-tenured was Richard Thorp, who died in 2013 after playing Alan Turner for 31 years. The longest-tenured actress is Sheila Mercier, who played Annie Sugden for 22 years.

Longest-appearing Emmerdale actors (as of 2015)

Rank	Actor	Character	Tenure
1	Richard Thorp	Alan Turner	1982–2013 (31 years)
2	Chris Chittell	Eric Pollard	1986–present (29 years)
3	Clive Hornby	Jack Sugden	1980–2008 (28 years)
4	Stan Richards	Seth Armstrong	1978–2003, 2004 (25 years)
5	Sheila Mercier	Annie Sugden	1972–94, 1995, 1996, 2009 (22 years)
6	Steve Halliwell	Zak Dingle	1994–present (21 years)
7	Paula Tilbrook	Betty Eagleton	1994–2015 (21 years)

Scheduling

Main article: Scheduling of Emmerdale

Emmerdale was first broadcast two afternoons a week in 1972, and it later moved to a 19:00 slot. The number of episodes has increased, to its current six half-hour episodes each week. Each episode is filmed two to four weeks before it is broadcast on ITV.

Broadcast history

	Sunday		Monday		Tuesday		Wednesday		Thursday		Friday		Saturday		Weekly episodes
1972–1988, 1990–1997															2
1988–1990															2
1997–2000															3
2000–2004															5
2004–2008															6
2008–2009															5 (1 hour on Tuesdays)
2009–present															6

Overseas

Ireland

Emmerdale reaches viewers in the Republic of Ireland via UTV Ireland, which broadcasts the series simultaneously with ITV in the UK with a live feed from London. Breaking news on ITV would interrupt the broadcast. Emmerdale was broadcast during the day on RTÉ One from 1972 to 2001 before it moved to TV3. RTÉ were several months behind; for many years, they broadcast the show five days a week (instead of ITV's three days a week) and took a break during the summer. As the series began a five-night week, RTÉ fell behind the ITV broadcasts; the gap between RTÉ One's last episode and TV3's first episode was about three months.

Sweden

The series has appeared in Sweden as Hem till gården ("Home to the Farm") since the 1970s – originally on TV2 and since 1994 on TV4. Two episodes are broadcast weekdays at 11:35. Emmerdale is the most-watched daytime non-news programme in Sweden, attracting 150,000 to 200,000 viewers daily. Episodes are repeated overnight on TV4 and in prime time on digital channel TV4 Guld.

Finland

The programme appears in Finland on MTV3 18:00–18:30 and 18:30–19:00 Monday to Friday with repeats of each episode at 11:00 and 11:25 the following weekday. Episodes from April and May 2014 were broadcast in September 2015.

New Zealand

Emmerdale is broadcast in New Zealand weekdays on ONE, with an hour-long episode Monday to Thursday and a half-hour episode on Friday from 12:30 to 13:00. It is the second-most-watched daytime programme, after the news. Episodes are broadcast a month behind ITV's.

Australia

Emmerdale was broadcast in Australia for the first time in July 2006, when UKTV began airing the 2006 series with episode 4288. As of November 2015, UKTV episodes are from March 2014.

Producers

• David Goddard (16 October 1972 – 16 January 1973)
• Peter Holmans (22 January 1973 – 17 July 1973)
• Robert D. Cardona (23 July 1973 – 18 May 1976)
• Michael Glynn (3 January 1977 – 10 January 1980)
• Anne W Gibbons (15 January 1980 – 29 September 1983)
• Richard Handford (4 October 1983 – 28 August 1986)
• Michael Russell (2 September 1986 – 24 March 1988)
• Stuart Doughty (30 March 1988 – 31 December 1991)
• Morag Bain (2 January 1992 – 14 December 1993)
• Nicholas Prosser (16 December 1993 – 29 November 1994)
• Mervyn Watson (1 December 1994 – 6 August 1998)
• Kieran Roberts (11 August 1998 – 13 April 2001)
• Steve Frost (16 April 2001 – 25 February 2005)
• Kathleen Beedles (28 February 2005 – 29 February 2008)
• Anita Turner (3 March 2008 – 13 March 2009)
• Gavin Blyth (16 March 2009 – 8 April 2011)
• Stuart Blackburn (11 April 2011 – 4 April 2013)
• Kate Oates (4 April 2013 – December 2015)
• Iain MacLeod (January 2016 − present)

See also

• List of Emmerdale characters
• List of Emmerdale spin-offs & merchandise
• List of births, marriages and deaths in Emmerdale
• List of longest-serving soap opera actors
• List of storylines in Emmerdale
• List of original Emmerdale characters
• List of past Emmerdale characters
• List of recurring and minor Emmerdale characters

External links

• Emmerdale at itv.com
• Emmerdale at stv.tv
• Emmerdale ClassicTelly.com
• Emmerdale What's on TV

• Emmerdale at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show