Friday 3 July 2009
1984 - PURLEASE!!
Cerys writes:
I've been looking forward to your 1984 features since January. Yes, JANUARY. Come on, boy, get to it! Any more of this dilly dallying and I shall not be a happy bunny.
You're quite right, Cerys - I've been a bit sidetracked. I'm sorry! 1984 will follow asap!
Monday 18 May 2009
Coming Soon - 1982 - The 10th Anniversary, Walter's Budgie And 1984...
We take a peek at the YTV press pack for the completion of the show's first decade in October 1982; we reveal the full facts concerning the Scandal of Walter's budgie, look at the era when Frankie Goes To Hollywood could be heard booming out of a JUKE BOX in The Woolpack (with Amos' full blessing!), and give you our long awaited 1984 Beckindale exposé.
So, twist those Rubik's Cubes, hoist those brick mobiles, go wild with the hair gel, plonk away on those ZX Spectrums and adjust those shoulder pads... There's LOTS more to come!
Tuesday 5 May 2009
When Do We Get To 1984?
An e-mail from Cerys, who asks:
At the end of last year, you promised us Beckindale tales of 1981 and 1984. Well, we've had lots of 1981 so far, but no '84. Have you changed your mind?
No, Cerys - I just got a load of material together from 1981 and thought I'd do things in year order. We have a couple of further visits to 1981 ahead, then it's 1984, I promise!
1984... when Amos tackles a microwave oven. Can Annie Sugden, a dab hand with an Aga, help? No, sadly not - she's never even seen a microwave oven before... Chaos ahead!
Also, why are Amos' customers periodically deserting The Woolpack en masse? Amos decides to interrogate Walter - who is (strangely) silent...
1984 is a very troubled year at The Woolpack... And elsewhere in Beckindale...
Relive it all here soon!
Saturday 21 February 2009
Roxy Music - Some Things Last Forever - At Least In Soapland...
Picture the scene: it's the late 1970s and Suzie Birchall and Gail Potter of Coronation Street are working at Mike Baldwin's fashion shop, The Western Front. Mike wanted teenage girls to staff the shop as he thought they would, hopefully, know what the punters were "in to".
Oddly, Gail and Suzie often used to play severely out-of-date music, like Roxy Music's early '70s stuff, in the shop. Not something I ever heard when Sue, my older cousin, dragged me around real fashion shops in the late '70s...
Picture the scene: it's the mid-1980s, the setting is Tarrant, home of the boating saga Howards' Way, and local teens, wearing very "trendy" ripped clothes are having a boogie... to early '70s Roxy Music. That never happened at any disco I attended back then! (Incidentally, they followed it by hoofing it up to mid-'80s Robert Palmer - PURLEASE!!)
Picture the scene: it's Howards' Way, a fashion shoot, and the background music is a Bryan Ferry track from the mid-1980s...
Picture the scene: it's Beckindale, December 1984, and Archie and the local teens are listening to a Roxy Music compilation LP, including early '70s groover Love Is The Drug, and 1980 sensation Midnight Hour.
Picture the scene: it's the next day at Emmerdale Farm and Jack Sugden is doing the farm accounts and listening to the radio, which just happens to be belting out Roxy Music's 1980 hit, The Same Old Scene.
Picture the scene, it's Tarrant again...
I won't go on. But Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry tracks seemed to crop up an awful lot in our '70s and '80s serials. Much as I love the group and Mr F, and aware as I am that the group and Bryan Ferry as a solo artist had chart hits from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, they seemed to crop up more than was natural, particularly when it came to scenes involving teenagers - who might more realistically have been listening to The Fall or the latest synth epic.
I know there were copyright issues and Emmerdale Farm in the 1980s did make an effort to be modern, including snatches of Party Fears Two, Like To Get To Know You Well, various Sade hits, and Relax. I suppose Roxy/Bryan Ferry must have had an arrangement with UK telly producers which made their music an attractive proposition, but the band's back catalogue cropping up in two separate scenarios in one episode of Emmerdale Farm in 1984 did seem to be straining credibility more than a little!
"Ooh, Jack, not this bunch again - let's switch it off!"
Tuesday 3 February 2009
A Warm Welcome At The Woolpack...
"There's always a warm welcome at The Woolpack"...
Hmmm...
Yes...
I see what they mean...
Walter enjoys a Woolpack warm welcome.
The Woolpack, with Amos as landlord, was never the most convivial place: in the first eight years of the show, Amos was dour and sour, a gossip and given to puffing himself up like a peacock. Who wanted to spend the evenings with the likes of him and pay for the privilege?!
In 1980, Ronald Magill took Amos up to a new peak - he became less dour, but louder, more animated, more fad-ridden, more pompous, more prickly, more nosey... more everything! The old Amos could display sound commonsense at times. The '80s Amos was usually absolutely bonkers! I believe that the arrival of Seth Armstrong as a full-time Woolpack regular, plus the arrival of Al Dixon as Walter, and Amos gaining an allotment - all events of 1980 - contributed enormously to Mr B's increased oddness.
But he was a sweet, innocent soul underneath. I suppose that's why we loved him.
Tuesday 30 December 2008
Happy 2009 - And Welcome To 1984!
The real 1984 didn't see the arrival of Big Brother - it's more like that today with the various databases (established and planned) and security cameras logging our every move - but it did see the arrival of the Apple Mac - complete with affordable computer mouse. A revolution was beginning...
The UK edition of Trivial Pursuit arrived and we were trivia crazy. Sir Alec Jeffreys accidentally discovered DNA fingerprinting, at the University Of Leicester, England (More here). The miners fought a bitter, losing battle; Frankie Goes To Hollywood shocked the charts; the yuppie era was drawing in; V was on the telly and Do They Know It's Christmas? hit the No 1 spot. Agadoo was another chart favourite. Push pineapple, grind coffee? Hmm...
In the world of fashion, shoulder pads were getting bigger and bigger, people were streaking their hair blonde and using hair gel to very striking (or ugly, depending on your viewpoint) effect and moon boots were a must-have, as were Frankie Say T-shirts.
One of the NY Estates bulls saw his chance and made a dash for freedom, causing problems for Jack Sugden...
Our "Twenty Five Years Ago" series highlights 1984 in 2009. We'll also be giving 1981 a thorough looking at (Rubik's Cube, anybody?!) and presenting snippets from other years.
My thanks to Magnus, Will, Cerys, Squirrel K, Bryan, and others, for some very interesting e-mails/comments this year - and To Mrs Violet Howes for her Beckindale poem. Thanks also to Bill Sands for supplying some original YTV publicity stills, and to all those who took part in the competition.
See you in 2009! Or do I mean 1984?!
Happy New Year!
Friday 5 September 2008
Did The Malt Shovel Ever Appear On-Screen?
An e-mail from Wendy asks if the interior of The Malt Shovel, the arch rival public house to The Woolpack, ever appeared on-screen?
I have some episodes from 1981, Wendy, in which Seth Armstrong revisits the 'Shovel - his old local (he became a regular at The Woolpack in 1980) - and both interior and exterior are seen. I believe the interior of the pub was also seen in the 1984/1985 storyline involving Mr Wilks and Doreen.
Wednesday 6 August 2008
1984 Request...
Hi! I'm really enjoying your blog and the 1980 Month. I've been going through a really bad time recently and I've been really depressed. Emmerdale Farm in the 1980s contains so many fond memories.
It makes me smile to think of it, although sometimes it makes me cry even more. I wish we were back in those days because I was so much happier.
Please would you put on a picture of my two favourite Emmerdale characters, Alan and Caroline? I read in your blog that they first appeared in 1982 and 1984 respectively. It seems like yesterday!
Yes, it does, Izzy. Time flies! I'm sorry you're feeling down. I know it sounds like a cliché, but bear with it and the bad times will pass. I hope you like the pictures of Alan Turner and Mrs Bates from the mid-1980s, and thanks for writing.
Take care.
Wednesday 9 July 2008
Mrs Bates
Mrs Bates, who arrived in Beckindale in 1984, had a broken marriage, two teenage children and a nightmare boss in Alan Turner at NY Estates. But she coped. The character's amusement at Alan's various acts of stupidity and her quiet, caring nature added a great deal of "must watch" factor to Emmerdale Farm.
Mrs Bates was not originally intended to be a major character, but Diana Davies added something to the role which ensured that she was. Richard Thorp (Alan Turner) recalls:
"Oh, Alan was an absolute stinker in the beginning, he rubbed everyone up the wrong way. The major influence on him was Mrs Bates who was played by Diana Davies. In the very first scene we did together I was losing my temper, ranting and raving, so she sent me up and it came across when we did the scene."
The Alan Turner/Mrs Bates NY Estates scenes were terrific to watch.
Mrs Bates ranks as one of my all-time favourite Beckindalers.
Diana Davies autograph from the 1980s.
Friday 2 May 2008
Hot From The Courier, 1984!
Monday 21 April 2008
The Hotten Courier, 1984
Sunday 6 April 2008
1985: Frederick Pyne Pays Tribute To The Late Toke Townley
Frederick Pyne, Matt Skilbeck in Emmerdale Farm, paid tribute to Toke Townley, the much-loved Grandad Sam Pearson in the show, who died in 1984.
Unlike some members of the cast I had not known Toke Townley before we started work on "Emmerdale" in June 1972. "Grandad" and "Matt" in the story soon developed a relationship of friendship and mutual understanding with, I believe, only one quarrel which was quickly forgiven and forgotten.
I am happy to say that the same was true of Toke and myself in real life except that we never had even the one quarrel.
We were never extremely close friends because Toke was essentially a loner as, to some extent, I am too. But we shared mutual interests in music, opera and theatre.
I remember taking him to see Beethoven's "Fidelio" at Leeds Grand Theatre and Verdi's "Othello" at the Palace Theatre, in Manchester. He had seen neither before and he was as thrilled and enthusiastic as a young lad with a new train set.
His needs were usually very simple and his praise always most generous. I once gave him tea, bread and butter and boiled eggs at my house and he told everyone at work about it as though I had given him a three-course cordon bleu meal.
This was partly because he was totally impractical at such things, but mainly because of his wonderful generosity of spirit. He rarely criticised fellow actors and he would travel far and wide to see them.
If he saw something he didn't like he would say: "Well, you see, it's not my sort of play."
This generosity showed up in his gifts to charity. I have a reputation for scrounging money for charity but I was never afraid to ask Toke.
Many a time I did not need to ask - he was already opening his wallet and asking me what I was collecting for. Sometimes I was quite astonished at the amounts he would give.
Of course, Toke wasn't all goodness - none of us is. He could have his dislikes and he could have very tetchy moods but I was extremely lucky; I only witnessed those moods; I was never the subject of them.
I always admired his tremendous energy and his terrific sense of fun and the absurd. It was nothing for him to give us notes on our performances in mock Russian and he would, completely seriously, talk the most ridiculous rubbish all morning but always with that mischievous twinkle in his eye that was so uniquely his own.
Or he would pretend that "Emmerdale" was a ballet and give us new steps to perform. "I think it will come to life," he would say, "when we get the full orchestra."
During breaks in the rehearsals in the farm kitchen set I quite often deliberately sit in "grandad's" chair and just quietly think about him.
Is this a form of prayer for him? I don't really know. What I do believe is that he is truly at rest because, although he was restless (because of his boundless energy) in life, he lived his last years in happiness and contentment with his work, his friends and his love of music and the theatre.
There could be no more fitting memory of him than the furnishings for the Green Room at the new Leeds Playhouse bought with the money from his memorial fund.
We loved him, we miss him and we shall never forget him.
Back on this 'ere blog, I have been undertaking a little reseach into Mr Townley's background and have so far come up with the following:
Toke Anthony Townley was born on 6 November, 1912, in the Dunmow, Essex, area of Eastern England. He died in September 1984. Because of advance filming, his Emmerdale Farm character lived on until late November - the character died on the 27th of that month.
If anybody has any further memories of Mr Townley and/or Grandad Pearson to share, I would be delighted to hear them!
Saturday 22 March 2008
"Oh We Are The Lads From Country Life..."
In 1984, the ad pictured above appeared in the TV Times Emmerdale Farm - Family And Friends magazine.
Monday 17 December 2007
More About Toke Townley...
Toke Townley always regretted not becoming an actor earlier in his life. His parents apparently didn't approve of the stage, and he therefore spent many of his early years as an office clerk.
But when Townley died in September, aged 72, he had been acting for 40 years and had found a happy niche late in life as Sam Pearson of "Emmerdale Farm".
It was a role he had played right from the start of the serial, 12 years ago, and though he looked just right as Sam in his countryman's gear, Townley considered himself a "townie" with no special affection for Sam's rural life. He lived in London with no television or hi-fi, preferring the radio or playing one of his collection of flutes and oboes.
The "Emmerdale Farm" cast held Townley in great affection. He makes his last recorded appearance in two weeks' time. Both Townley and the character he created will be sadly missed.
Friday 14 December 2007
The History Of Grandad Pearson...
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....
Tuesday 4 December 2007
Sandra Gough Behind The Bar...
Sandra Gough, once the wonderfully comic (though tragedy-stricken) Irma Ogden/Barlow of Coronation Street, was headed to Beckindale as barmaid Doreen. Could this spell romance for Mr Wilks?
Oh dear - trouble at The Malt Shovel in 1984. Mr Wilks (Arthur Pentelow) falls for Doreen's charms - to the consternation of Amos Brearly (Ronald Magill) and Ernie Shuttleworth (Peter Schofield).
The Sun, 13/5/1985: Ms Gough gives her opinion on Emmerdale Farm and her time in Coronation Street in a "Where Are They Now?" article on former Corrie stars.