Emmerdale Farm

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 Farm (Emmerdale since 1989) is the best soap on TV and has been for a number of years; I am still puzzled as to why it doesn't get the credit it deserves.

I usually watch this soap at my girlfriend's house and it is a great way to unwind after a hard day's work. It's set in Yorkshire (probably the most beautiful county in England)and follows the trials and tribulations of a small village. The villagers can usually be found in local pub The Woolpack or the village shop. However, unlike other soaps, there's several scenes set outside with the beautiful Yorkshire scenery.

Unlike other soaps, Emmerdale is a character driven soap. Every now and again it has a big drama such as the 1993 plane crash or the 2002 lorry crash but it doesn't need to have such big events often because it focuses more on the characters. Since it started in 1972 the writers have done a wonderful job.

Another ingredient to Emmerdale's success is the balance between humour and tragedy. Some soaps such as Eastenders and Brookside are far too gloomy with no comedic scenes at all but Emmerdale balances the tragedy out with comedy scenes involving the likes of the Dingle Family or the dodgy Eric Pollard. Comedy has always been one of Emmerdale's strong points.

The characters themselves are great. Obviously, I would love to go into detail but there wouldn't be enough space when you consider 30 years worth of shows. The 70's focused mainly on the Sugden Family who were always interesting. The 80's saw the likes of Rachel Hughes and the debut of the immoral Eric Pollard. The 90's was a great time for the likes of millionaire Frank Tate, his heartless son Chris, his evil wife Kim Tate and lesbian vet Zoe Tate. Here in the 21st century, Emmerdale continues to be good with characters like the romeo Rodney Blackstock, the crazy Dingle Family and gangster Ray Mullan.

I have actually lived in a village for a period and this is quite true to life. Okay, soaps could never really be considered reality but when I lived in a village I found that the small community really did stick together through thick and thin and the same happens in this programme. The only thing that isn't realistic is the amount of time the characters spend in the pub-one of these days Emmerdale is going to suffer from a mass outbreak of alcohol poisoning.

All in all, Emmerdale has been consistently good and recently celebrated it's 30th birthday with some great episodes. Here's to the next 30 years.

The storyline involving Alex, him being knocked down by Billie, on a massively clear road but Billie didn't see him Alex stopping in the middle of said road to have a conversation, all following a tussle in the heart of the village with Alex's name being bellowed out but no one, not a single person around!!! I not only find this to be so unrealistic I also feel your taking your viewers to be completely stupid. Constantly have to embellish events to the point of lunacy. Really annoying and extremely frustrating, why can you not just run a straight forward storyline Alex gets caught but gets away, makes his way back to the car and escaped, police chase crash anything other than this rediculous turn of events, nothing ever just goes well for anyone at any time why can't you have just a normal storyline depicting how everyone is coping with the cost of living, yes you've touched on it with the Dingles, but they are a family that have always struggled just for a little while can storylines play out without stupid unrealistic twists, what a breath of fresh air that would be.

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

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!