Can You Guess? Skulduggery At The Beckindale Horticultural Show, 1983...

There was trouble at the Beckindale Horticultural Show in 1983 when Skipdale Co-op price tags were found on one of the competitors' cauliflowers...

Who do you think the miscreant was?

A) Judy Westrop

B) Seth Armstrong

C) Jackie Merrick

D) Henry Wilks

E) Walter

F) Amos Brearly

G) Sam Pearson

Poem: Beckindale In The '80s

Amos Brearly and the newly arrived Walter in 1980.

The Beckindale Bugle is getting verse! Many thanks to Mrs Violet Howes for e-mailing her poetic tribute to Emmerdale Farm in the 1980s! I'll drop you a line to answer the '80s cast queries you raised later today, Mrs H!

1980 was a year of change,
Our Jack returned to a home on the range
He had a new face, Dolly did too,
Whilst from Malt Shovel to Woolpack
Seth Armstrong flew

A busy year for Amos
With new allotment and Courier reports so true
And sitting at the bar was
Walter Mark Two

1981 - Pat was Jack's only one
A love so strong, so pure, and good
Did Pat's kids approve?
If only they would!

1982 - a child was born
Dolly and Matt had good news
As did Pat and Jack -
A wedding day
Free of blues

At Home Farm, Alan Turner arrived
Which worried Seth not
At work he still skived

'83 and Joe was in a trance
In love with Barbara
And then off to France

Archie appeared -
Socialist slob
And redundancies loomed
Was John out of a job?

1984 - Sam Pearson died
How we missed him
I cried and cried.

Jack bedded another
Marriage vows he did flout
But Pat found out
They were reconciled
Have no doubt

At Home Farm,
Mrs Bates was on draught
Sensible woman - she found Alan daft
Whilst he blustered and ranted
She just laughed and laughed

1985 - midway through
And lots and lots of news for you
Seth's donkey ran amok
Whilst Amos kept bees
And Mrs Bates' marriage break-up
Almost brought her to her knees

1986 - terror for Matt
Harry Mowlam murdered
Now WHO did that?

Eric Pollard at the market
And Pat Sugden in horror crash
The year was thunder and lightning
But not over in a flash

1987 - nuclear fears were rife
No Nukes In Beckindale!
A threat to land and life
The cry seemed to be ignored
But won through in the end
A happy ending and a safe future
For many a Beckindale friend

1988 - Kathy and Jackie did marry
Their happiness was untapped
But Dolly was untrue to Matt
And so the Skilbecks' marriage
Began to come unwrapped

At Crossgill disaster came with fire
For Annie Sugden the house
Almost became her funeral pyre

1989 - the decade was on the fizzle
But the affair of Rachel and Pete
Gave its dying months some sizzle

Home Farm was sold
The Tates moved in
Mrs Bates departed
Alan's future looked grim

Goodbye to Matt, the Reverend Hinton too
The 90's would see stories
Which seemed silly and untrue

Competition: What A Nightmare! Beckindale With A Dallas Twist!

The Woolpack Inn, Beckindale, December 19, 1989: 7.15 am - Amos Brearly wakes up and goes downstairs to find Mr Wilks preparing a full English breakfast for them both...

"Mr Wilks!" he groans, "I've just 'ad this terrible dream. It seemed to go on for years. Them Tates what 'ave just moved into Home Farm turned out to be right nasty, and there was a plane crash in't village, and Emmerdale Farm fell down, and the post office blew up, and there was a seige at Home Farm and a house blew up in a gas explosion, and a baby died - one o' them cot deaths - and the people who thought they were't parents found out it was somebody else's baby, and there was a seige at Home Farm and a family called King moved in and one of them put his step-mother's coffin in a bin lorry and people in't village were being right strange - like they were actin' in a third rate pantomime... and there were a lot else besides..."

Mr Wilks smiles: "Amos, how many times have I told you not to eat cheese just before bed?"

So, it's still December 1989. Amos has dreamt all the events taking place in Beckindale/Emmerdale from December 1989 right up to 2008. Now, it's over to you! How do you imagine the saga may have continued if there had been no plane crash? If Amos hadn't retired in 1991? If Emmerdale Farm hadn't fallen down? Could Matt and Dolly have been reconciled? Should the teen element in the show have been raised - or lowered? What about the Tates, newly arrived in November 1989 - how would you have developed their characters? Would you have brought in the modern day characters of the Emmerdale saga? Would you have changed the name of the village?

What exactly would you have done if you were taking the show into the 1990s - and beyond?

Please share your alternative Beckindale Beyond The '80s Vision with us here at The Bugle - e-mail or leave your thoughts in the Comments. Our favourite entry will win colour signed photographs of Arthur Pentelow (Mr Wilks) and Ronald Magill (Amos Brearly) from the 1980s.

Who Is This?

This man, pictured many years ago, played a well-known Emmerdale Farm character of the 1980s. Can you name the actor and the character he played? The answer is coming soon!

Name That Set!

Here's an aerial view of a well-known Emmerdale Farm set in the 1980s. Do you know who "lived" there in the show?