Caring Dolly, Seth And Mr Turner - The Saga Continues, And Jackie Home From Hospital...

Jean Rogers, modelling knitwear as Dolly Skilbeck in 1983.

TV Times, 22-28 June 1985.

The week's big event was the return of Jackie Merrick to Emmerdale Farm after his long stay in hospital. The poor bloke had been in an accident involving a certain Mr Alan Turner's car....

Meanwhile, the Tuesday episode synopsis shows that the aforementioned Mr Turner was not without problems. And, as was so often the case, Seth Armstrong was involved!

1986: The Night The Mobile Phone Arrived In Beckindale...

A freezing cold night in 1986, with snow on the ground, and a figure came running down from The Struggle...

... and into the village of Beckindale.

Young Kathy Bates (Malandra Burrows) emerged from her mother's house to fetch something from the car and heard the sound of metal dustbins clattering and a cat yowling. She paused, alarmed. But everything was still.

At the Woolpack...

... Amos (Ronald Magill) was unhappy. He was suffering from conjunctivitis (or "conjunc-tia-vities" as he called it), hence his pirate-style eye patch...

... and Seth (Stan Richards) never tired of teasing him about it.

Having left the pub, Seth started for home...

... and was surprised when two police cars come roaring into the village, sirens going "nee-norr"...

Seth never liked to mix with the police. This feeling got the better of his curiosity and he continued on home.

Curtains twitched at the Woolpack as the police arrived there. The regulars were told that a dangerous man was on the loose.

Over at the village church, the Reverend Donald Hinton (Hugh Manning), locking up for the night, was startled when Derek Warner (Dennis Blanche) jumped out on him, brandishing a shot gun.

At the vicarage, Derek told Donald Hinton that he was the killer of local Mr Nasty Harry Mowlam (Godfrey James)...

A siege was underway, Derek told the vicar he could leave, but the Rev Hinton, stirred by his plight, decided to stay and talk to him. Outside, the police wanted to phone the vicarage and on came a hand-held mobile phone!

It was a Motorola analogue model - state of the art. The first mobile phone call in England - indeed the whole of Britain, had been made by comedian Ernie Wise at St Katherine's Dock, London, on 1 January 1985. The very first commercially available hand-helds had been unveiled by Motorola in 1983. They were hugely expensive and many of us dismissed them: "Yuppie toys - ridiculous, haven't they ever heard of phone boxes?!!"

So, the first sighting of a hand-held mobile in Emmerdale Farm was quite a milestone in the serial's history!

Back to the storyline, and the assembled police (including village bobby Sergeant MacArthur, played by Ian Dale) awaited developments at the vicarage. Finally, Derek emerged with the vicar, and was hustled away by police officers.

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Life in Beckindale soon settled down again, but the glimpse of the mobile phone was an indication that a great technological change was soon to impact on everyday life in the village. And everywhere else!

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When you add to that the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners Lee in 1989, which brought the Internet into all our homes in the 1990s, and the arrival of Sky TV, also in 1989, it seems surprising just how recent the advent of the technology we now take for granted actually was.

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Read more about the arrival of mobile phones in the 1980s here.

The History Of Grandad Pearson...

Photograph by Harold Hanscomb

This young actor is Toke Townley - appearing as Willie the houseboy in the 1952 John Paddy Carstairs film comedy Treasure Hunt. The blurb on the back of the original print informs us that Toke was then a "newcomer to the screen". Toke played both the flute and the recorder, and his talents were sometimes made use of on-screen....

... as seen here in this early 1980s scene from Emmerdale Farm. Toke's role as Grandad Sam Pearson evolved, as is the way with most soap characters - the Sam Pearson who first appeared in 1972 was not of quite the same temperament as the Sam Pearson of a couple of years later.

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The opposite of confirmed son-of-the-soil Sam, Toke had no love for the country life, but his playing of the character was utterly convincing. Sometimes testy, sometimes downright grumpy, Sam was a strongly religious man who cared deeply for his family. The materialisatic and promiscuous ways of the modern world were beyond his understanding.

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In the early 1980s, the character was put to excellent use as Anne W Gibbons increased the regular cast and the household at Emmerdale Farm expanded, with the additions of Jack's new wife, Pat, and newly discovered son, Jackie, and Pat's daughter, Sandie.

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To see Sam confronting the modern ways the incomers brought with them - including one memorable scene featuring fish fingers - added further interest to the character. Grandad Pearson was never boring!

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Sam was deeply distressed when young Sandie became pregnant out of wedlock and was not backwards in speaking up, but he did not act out of unkindness, rather concern for Sandie and his fears about the way the world was going.

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Grandad Pearson entertains at the Beckindale Christmas Show, 1983.

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Sam remained an integral part of the Beckindale community until 1984 when Toke Townley died. His final appearance on screen was in November of that year. Sam's final storyline involved his pumpkin winning first prize in the village's annual show, so the character had an upbeat ending.

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In 1985, Richard Handford, the producer of Emmerdale Farm, paid tribute to Toke:

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"He was a very special member of the cast and we still miss him. On his own admission he was a loner. He spent most of his life living out of suitcases and he didn't really have a home; he preferred to live in a hotel. He was quite happy in his own company, yet he was a very sociable man. Toke was the one who knew the christian names of every commissionaire and canteen lady at Yorkshire Television.

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"And when I went to an expensive restaurant in Leeds recently, I discovered he'd been on first name terms with all the waiters and waitresses there as well.

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"Toke lived a simple life. He didn't drink or smoke and his main relaxation was music.

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"He was very good company and a true professional. There was no question of finding another actor to play Sam Pearson. Toke Townley was irreplaceable."

8 September 1981 - Emmerdale Farm Returns And A New BBC Comedy Series Begins...

From the Sun - 8/9/1981:

Emmerdale Farm returns tonight for a new twice-weekly run (ITV except Scotland, either 5.15 or 7pm).

In tonight's episode, farmer Jack Sugden (Clive Hornby) is determined to improve profits.

The viewing schedules that evening also brought us the very first episode of BBC comedy Only Fools And Horses (click on image for more) - lovely jubbly!

Jackie Merrick - Heart Throb of Beckindale...

Ian Sharrock in 1983. Ian starred as Jackie Merrick, long-lost son of Jack Sugden in Emmerdale Farm, from 1980 to 1989.

From the Sunday Mirror, September 4, 1983.

Margaret Forwood's TV column in the Sun, October 20, 1983. And tucked away is an amazing snippet about Emmerdale Farm! Don't worry, although the show got racier during the 1980s, I'm sure Jackie's nakedness was only inferred! There's no doubt that Ian Sharrock's presence in the show added some romantic appeal, but he could also act. I thought the Jackie Merrick years were good ones for Emmerdale Farm. The character was killed off in a shotgun accident in 1989.

Remember This? Amos, Sweet As Honey - June 1985

From the TV Times, 13 June 1985.

Does anyone recall the details of this storyline?

October 1982: "20 Things You Never Knew About Emmerdale Farm"

A "TV Times" souvenir to celebrate the show's tenth anniversary was published in 1982.

The Sun, 9 October, 1982:

Emmerdale Farm celebrates its tenth telly anniversary this month. But did you know that...

1) Seven of the eight original characters are still in the show - Annie, Jack and Joe Sugden, Matt Skilbeck, Sam Pearson, Amos Brearly and Henry Wilks.

2) Originally the series was intended to run for 26 episodes. It has run 750.

3) Frederick Pyne, who plays Matt Skilbeck, spent many years working on real farms in Cheshire and Cambridgeshire.

4) Real beer is served in the Woolpack and Ronald Magill, who plays landlord Amos, admits he has been "squiffy" on set quite a few times.

5) The work schedule is so tight that Clive Hornby, who plays Jack Sugden, once had to leave a hospital bed for filming.

6) The real farm and village for Beckindale have a special contract keeping the locations a secret to keep out sightseers.

7) When farmer Arthur Bell agreed to allow cameras on to his land he expected a few weeks of upheaval. Cameras and canteen caravans are now permanent.

8) Sexy Kirsty Pooley, one-time girlfriend of Frazer Hines, once posed nude for a magazine.

9) Thames TV were swamped with complaints when the same episode was shown twice in London.

10) The homely farm kitchen is just a set in the Leeds studio.

11) Emmerdale's flock of black-faced Masham sheep have won prizes at shows.

12) Filming always takes second place to farming. If a milking scene is needed everone waits for milking time.

13) Toke Townley, who plays Sam Pearson, really does go in for the simple life. He is a non-smoking teetotaller who lives in a Leeds flat and doesn't own a TV set.

14) A country diary kept by Farmer Bell's daughter Christine, was used to add authenticity to the scripts.

15) Frazer Hines and Freddie Pyne are now skilled at farm work.

16) Fans can buy Emmerdale cheese - mild and white - and Emmerdale wool.

17) Andrew Burt, who once played Jack Sugden, is due to pop up soon in Dr Who.

18) A gaggle of geese are special mascots of the cast and crew.

19) Hugh Manning, who plays widowed vicar Donald Hinton, once planned to go into the Church.

20) Real-life drama hit Emmerdale Farm a few years back when the stars' mobile canteen exploded. Three workers were badly burned.

Sorting Fact From Fiction...

Peter Alexander as Phil Pearce.

From the Sun, October 4, 1986 - this is another instance of soap fiction and real life becoming hopelessly mixed up!

1982: What Happened On Amos' Spanish Holiday?

In August 1982, Thames TV were repeating episodes of Emmerdale Farm from earlier in the year. Does anybody remember why Amos wouldn't spill the beans about his Spanish holiday?

1985: Up Go The Ratings...

Good news for Walter and Seth as Emmerdale Farm's viewers rapidly increase...

TV TIMES 8-14 June 1985.

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Enough to make old Walter speak?! Not quite, but Emmerdale Farm's increasing success, attracting nearly fifteen million viewers in 1985, was a cause for joy for fans of the show and for everybody in "Beckindale"!

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One surprise, now the London area has joined the series at peak viewing time, is that more Southerners are warming to the rustic drama of the farm than are drawn to a cockney-based rival soap shown at the same time.

I can't imagine what the "cockney-based rival soap" was, can you?

Toke Townley On Farming...

Toke Townley as Sam Pearson in a 1983 episode of "Emmerdale Farm".

Sunday Mirror, July 3, 1983: "I can't imagine anything more dreadful than being a farmer," said Toke Townley, who played one of my favourite Emmerdale Farm characters, Grandad Sam Pearson, from the start of the show in 1972 to the actor's death in 1984.

As he was so convincing in his portrayal of Sam, a character with a deep attachment to farming and the land, it came as something of a surprise way back then to learn that Toke held such a different view. What a great actor he was!