Emmerdale Farm

Emmerdale, shown by the UK viewing figures, is extremely popular, and rightly so. It perfectly creates the right atmosphere existing in country villages to this day (I should know). The highlight of it all is Samantha Giles, who plays the colourful and quite humorous Bernice Thomas, the landlady of the village's boozer, the Woolpack. Where you want humour, a scene springs up with the antics of the Dingle family. Where you want some drama, there are scenes on the Emmerdale Farm and in the nearby Home Farm: It gives a wide special spectrum, entertaining all in the process.

Don't miss it!

People may complain about Emmerdale having become 'urbane' in recent years and moving away from it's so-called rural charm...

But these clips showing a racist attack in Leeds from December 1992, will show you just how modern and urbane the show had already become as the 90s kicked in...

...and to think that people thought that before the plane crash of 1993, all the show consisted of was Annie making tea and baking bread, and Jack & Joe milking a cow and sheepdipping... definitely not so...! :)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2zfkam

Made in the largest studios of Britain, Emmerdale is a soap combining the daily lives of colourful characters of all varieties. Now called Emmerdale, the soap has shed its image of a boring drama set on a farm in the Yorkshire Dales. From the vindictive and orally vicious Viv in the shop to the friendly and funny Bernice in the Woolpack, Emmerdale's bar, you'll become addicted and transfixed on the superb acting and memorable storylines.

Having just seen it after probably over 10 years gap, I can only but echo the comments by another poster sleepin dragon.

It now appears to look like a hollyoaks episode, with a range of overmade up women, many with hilariously swollen lips. Rather than being in emmerdale, it just focuses on the minutiae of people's relationships, with no actual storyline.

The scenes remind me oddly of a low budget version of Acorralada.

Emmerdale is a good old British soap.

Although the stars in this are changing all the while, I still enjoy watching it.

Some of the best stars in this are Betty and Edna. They bring comedy relief, which it needs at times as there have been several tragedies over the years, including a plane crash and minibus crash, where several characters were killed off.

Unfortunately, Stan Richards who played Seth died earlier this year (2005) and Emmerdale won't be the same without him.

Some of the story lines in Emmerdale at present are rather silly, especially the affair between Viv and Paddy. Looks like yet another marriage breaking up (Emily and Paddy). For some reason, scriptwriters seem against people being happily married. There won't be any married couples left in Emmerdale the way things are going. You would not get this many marriage and relationship break ups in such a small community in real life.

Despite all this, Emmerdale is an excellent soap and I still watch it.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.