Emmerdale

The show what I watched last night was Emmerdale. Look, I was busy ok and it was the only show I had time to watch :)

For those freshly out of a cave, Emmerdale is a soap opera set in a Yorkshire village off the same name. If you're off a certain age or haven't watched it for several years, you may remember it as Emmerdale Farm. Back then the soap was pretty much centred on the farm but today is more focused on the actual village, giving it greater scope, more characters and intricate storylines.

I think this switch happened around the time of the plane crash which wiped out half the cast. One of my everlasting memories of the old Emmerdale Farm was a blinded Nick Tate shouting 'Archie, Archie'. Classic!

Last night's episode focused on the climax of a feud between Chastity 'Chas' Spencer (nee Dingle) (played by Lucy Pargeter) and her niece Debbie Dingle, (Charley Webb). This being soap land, Chas, off course, had an affair with Debbie's boyfriend, Cameroon, (insert actors names), Debbie, quite understandably, took offence to Aunty Chas' indiscretion. Do they talk it over? No. Do they ask someone in the family to mediate and maybe work towards some kind of compromise? No. Does Debbie kidnap Chas, drive her to a disused barn and threaten to blow her head off with a stolen gun? Like I said, this is soap land!

So the whole episode was will she won't she kill Chas? The answer I knew several days before this episode was aired and is a big fat no. If she had then it might have been difficult for Chas to be in next weeks episodes as per the TV listings and the accompanying photo of a live and well Chas in The Woolpack.

Knowing full well Chas was not going to be killed is rather like watching a recorded football match, when some bastard on Facebook has already revealed the final score. You watch it because you are interested, but there is non of that excitement or anticipation which heightens the experience.

Off course it's not Emmerdale's fault, maybe the TV mags should have left Chas out of next weeks edition, but in the age of 24 hour media and information, it would have been hard not have stumbled onto it. Also a main character like Chas would be a Christmas exit or would have been plastered on the front of all soap mags and the fact that the actress herself has not announced she's leaving, made last nights episode easy to read.

But that is not to take away anything from the episode, it was still gripping stuff. The transformation of Debbie's character from one dimensional goody two shoes to heartless scheming bitch has been brilliantly scripted and well acted by Webb. And if we all knew Chas would not die then someone should have told the actress as she looked shit scared! The tension and fear was very believable well acted by Pargeter.

In fact, for the heartache, fear, pain and betrayal portrayed by both of these actresses over the last 6 months, they should be applauded. Emmerdale has a strong cast, especially the women. Last night they proved themselves more than worthy of commanding big storylines and screen time and I'm sure will continue to dominate in the months to come.

Recently, Emmerdale overtook Eastenders in the ratings and its easy to see why. Eastenders has become all too predictable, dour and depressing. Emmerdale is fresh, has a light side and continues to challenge controversial issues, for example, last years storyline around assisted suicide was incredibly well done and opened up debates and challenged ideas.

So yes, the show what I watched last night was Emmerdale and I actually liked it. The sleepy soap about sheep sheering has matured and is coming of age. It's a must see serial drama for soap fans. As for Eastenders, well, I'll leave that rant for a future blog!

Emmerdale is on ITV1 and so often you're probably best consulting listings rather than me trying to type it all out!

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