Sunday 24 February 2008

The Big '80s Emmerdale Poll

Whether it's dependable Annie, anarchistic Archie, oddball Amos, amiable Alan (!), silent Walter, evil Eric or someone completely different, I'd like to know who was your favourite Emmerdale Farm character in the 1980s. So, eyes right please, and click on your choice!

7 comments:

maria said...

Emmerdale was boring but far better years ago than it is today.

The show has just "done" cot death, and everybody's fawning over it, loving the pretend misery and saying how good it is.

But the plot is based on politically correct crap - saying that it's worse for the mother than for the father and all that nonsense, and it was all done so graphically it made me feel sick.

Who watches this and thinks it's justified?

And this from the show that a few weeks ago was dumping a dead body in a bin lorry as a story line.

Emmerdale is now desperately sick - and so are the peole who watch it. Turn back the clock!

Anonymous said...

My favourite 1980s Emmerdale characters were the Tates. Why aren't they on your poll list?

Drew said...

Hi, Sarah.

To qualify for my list, characters had to be on screen for at least one year of the '80s. I wanted to include the characters who were around enough to add to the show's distinctive '80s brew.

Several of the original characters were still very much on the scene (indeed I think Amos and Mr Wilks were at their height in the '80s - the decade is packed full of wonderful Woolpack storylines, and the relationship between the two friends and business partners had matured to perfection), and there were some wonderful new arrivals, too.

The Tates arrived in late 1989, and although they were certainly introduced in the '80s, they didn't spend much time there and their era was really the 1990s, in my opinion.

If you think about it, the nice family introduced at Home Farm in 1989 developed rather differently in the '90s!

So I really think their inclusion here would be inappropriate. I'd be interested to know readers' views on favourite characters introduced in the 1980s, and the Tates will certainly feature in that poll if I get round to it.

Anonymous said...

re: Maria.
In the 70s and early 80s television watchdogs put a limit on how much sex and violence you could so in a TV soap. Back then the only two people on TV you would see in bed together would be Morecambe and Wise. It's not somewhat of a gag that those early episodes were so tame (but they definately weren't sleepy by any means). From the mid-80s onwards, less strict rules were in place with regards to sex and violence. By doing storylines such as cot death, surrogacy, etc. and years ago teenage pregnancy, child abuse, it raises awareness and shows these issues are not being ignored. Special effects and technology have also changed making major storylines like the plane crash, storm and house collapse storylines possible. I for one found the cot death storyline true to life. Back in the 70s, when young Sam & Sally Skilbeck were killed on a level crossing, that was probably the first truly shocking storyline, and as Keith Richardson said a few years ago, "as the audience's tolerance level rises, you just look for the next big thing that's going to shock them". But I don't think they deliberately set out to upset people. They try to ensure Emmerdale is "family viewing".

Anonymous said...

When Eastenders did "cot death" some years ago people called it brave. Yet if Emmerdale does it, it's out of character. People seem to think that just because Emmerdale is set in the Yorkshire Dales it can't cover the same storylines as say Eastenders or Coronation Street. The way some people talk about the show you would think everyone in Yorkshire worked on a farm. I don't!

maria said...

No, there is no way that the likes of the coffin/garbage crusher storyline would have been passed for family viewing in the 1980s - and probably not in the '90s either. People are becoming increasingly insensitive - and fawning hypocritically over fictional tragedies.

Does it give meaning to dull little lives?

SICK. Emmerdale IS SICK. I notice we've got a storyline coming up with somebody chasing somebody with a poker.

SICK.

Drew said...

I'm terribly sorry, but this blog is about Emmerdale Farm in the 1980s, not a debating society for present day Emmerdale. Any further e-mails on this topic will not be published.