1972–1985: Emmerdale Farm Emmerdale Farm was created when
Kevin Laffan was asked to write a lunchtime farming serial for ITV, as the network was looking to expand its daytime programming after government restrictions on broadcasting hours were relaxed. He initially said no as his agent advised him that writing a soap would tarnish his reputation as a playwright, which he found to be part of a snobbish attitude shown towards soap operas. Laffan eventually said yes and formed a 26-episode play that would act as a 13-week serial. Laffan had worked on a farm for six months in his youth, and said on writing about farm life: "I was intrigued by the idea that farming was a way of life, as opposed to simply a way of earning a living." The premise of
Emmerdale Farm was similar to the
BBC Radio 4 soap opera
The Archers, focusing on a family, a farm and characters in a nearby village. The programme's farmyard filming was originally modelled on
RTÉ's
The Riordans, an Irish soap opera which was broadcast from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s.
The Riordans broke new ground for soap operas by being filmed largely outdoors (on a farm, owned on the programme by Tom and Mary Riordan) rather than in a studio—the usual practice of British and American soap operas.
The Riordans success demonstrated that a soap opera could be filmed largely outdoors, and
Yorkshire Television sent people to its set in
County Meath to see the programme's production first-hand. The first episode aired on 16 October 1972 at 1:30pm, and began with the
Sugden family convening in the fictional village of Beckindale for the funeral of a relative. After its initial 13-week run, the positive viewer response led to an increase to 26 weeks and then a 6-month run, which led to the eventual year-long screening of the soap. The increase in episode output was accompanied by a move to a late-afternoon time slot. Under Richardson, the soap's popularity gradually began to improve. Richardson produced the programme for 24 years, overseeing its transformation from a minor, daytime, rural drama into a major
prime time UK soap opera. By 1993,
Emmerdale was into its third decade on the air and December 1993 saw a major turning point in the show's history, when an episode featured
a plane crashing into the village of Beckindale, killing four main characters, which included survivors changing the village name from "Beckindale" to "Emmerdale". An ITV
talent show,
Soapstars, was held in 2001 to cast the new five-member Calder family; the Calders made their debut on the show in November that year, and all members had left by August 2002. In 2004,
Emmerdale became the first British soap opera to broadcast six episodes a week. The early and mid-2000s saw the introduction of major long-term characters, including the King family and
Cain (
Jeff Hordley) and
Charity Dingle (
Emma Atkins). This era also saw high-profile castings such as
Patsy Kensit as
Sadie King in 2004, and
Amanda Donohoe and
Maxwell Caulfield as
Natasha and
Mark Wylde in 2008. Major storylines during this period included a bus crash,
Sarah Sugden's death in a barn fire, a New Year's Eve storm, the Kings River explosion, and the Sugden house fire. In 2009, the longest-tenured character,
Jack Sugden (
Clive Hornby), was killed off. Jack's funeral featured the first on-screen appearance in 13 years of
Annie Sugden (
Sheila Mercier). The same year, long-serving executive producer Keith Richardson was replaced by former series producer
Steve November (later replaced by John Whiston).
Gavin Blyth became the series producer, followed by Stuart Blackburn after Blyth's death. In January 2011, two of the soaps longest-serving characters
Viv Hope portrayed by
Deena Payne since 1993 and
Terry Woods portrayed by
Billy Hartman since 1995 respectively, were both killed off as part of a major fire stroyline.
2012–2021: Anniversary celebrations and events Emmerdale celebrated its 40th anniversary with its first-ever live episode on 17 October 2012. "
Emmerdale Live" featured the death of
Carl King (
Tom Lister) and a live music festival with performances by
Scouting for Girls and
the Proclaimers as part of the anniversary celebrations. The story of Carl's death took the show into 2013, when
Kate Oates replaced Blackburn as the new series producer. One of Oates' aims was to feature more of the village and rural countryside locations and to bring more "balance" to the show instead of focusing on "a few very high-profile stories". Major storylines during this period included a helicopter crash that killed
Ruby Haswell (
Alicya Eyo) and
Val Pollard (
Charlie Hardwick), and a multi-car pile-up. In 2016,
Emmerdale was named
Best British Soap for the first time at the
British Soap Awards. In January 2019,
ITV3 began airing episodes of
Emmerdale from the beginning of the soap's inception. Billed
Classic Emmerdale, ten sequential episodes have been broadcast weekly since. In March 2019, an episode featuring an exclusively female cast and crew was aired in support of
International Women's Day. Executive producer Jane Hudson said that the episode was "a great opportunity for
Emmerdale to show the female talent we have both in front and behind the camera." In 2020, the production and filming of
Emmerdale was suspended due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. In order to prevent the programme from coming off air, the episodes shown per week were halved from six to three. In September 2020, it was announced that there would be a "big autumn shake-up"; one of the changes included the casting of
Paige Sandhu as
Meena Jutla. She was later confirmed to be a serial killer and has been responsible for the murders of
Leanna Cavanagh (
Mimi Slinger),
Andrea Tate (
Anna Nightingale) and
Ben Tucker (Simon Lennon). All of the actors involved expressed a decision to leave the soap and their exits were incorporated into Meena's serial killer arc, a storyline which has seen Sandhu awarded Best Villain at the
2021 Inside Soap Awards.
2022–present: Producer and cast changes In January 2022, it was confirmed that the production team were in the early stages of creating the 50th anniversary storylines set to air in October 2022. They hinted that the anniversary would see a "huge shake-up". The anniversary episode received a mixed reaction.
Radio Times appreciated the writing and acting, as well as how the series has "reinvented itself to turn away from the mundanity of the farm, and into a relevant, powerful and completely gripping soap". However, it was noted by newspapers how viewers were unimpressed and had expected more drama. In 2023, Hudson, who had been the executive producer of
Emmerdale since 2018, left her role. Hudson was replaced internally by Iain Macleod, who was promoted from
Coronation Streets executive producer to overseeing both soaps. At the same time, former producer Sophie Roper was reappointed. She confirmed a new era for
Emmerdale from 2024, with various cast changes and "bold and ground-breaking drama". The initial cast changes saw short-term characters including
Ethan Anderson (Emile John),
Nicky Miligan (Lewis Cope) and
Suni Sharma (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana) written out of the soap.
Wendy Posner (
Susan Cookson),
Will Taylor (
Dean Andrews),
Brenda Walker (
Lesley Dunlop) and
Leyla Harding (
Roxy Shahidi). Uploading episodes early onto
ITVX was introduced in 2024, to give viewers more flexibility in when they want to watch the series. This was inspired by a 30% rise of viewing figures for
Emmerdale on ITVX. ==Setting and characters==