I Am A Swede

I've been watching a lot of early 1990s episodes recently (thank you for putting them on Youtube DRW50!) and I've realized how much I miss Kathy on the show. At least I can take comfort in the fact that she, like some of my other favourites Dolly and Matt, got to leave alive, and that she got away before they could pair her up with a long-lost Dingle relative.

It's disgusting, but sadly not surprising. People have been writing vicious and despicable things on social media for ages. The big difference now is that this behaviour has found its way to the very top.

Well, since Aaron mostly mopes around or is miserable I'd hardly expect him to wear something bright and colourful.....

I think the cast is too big, and that means that stories/characters disappear for long stretches. You'd think that with 6 episodes/week they would have the time to handle that, but they obviously can't. The whole Pete/Priya story came completely out of nowhere and really made no sense. If Priya sees Leyla as a friend then why would she jump into bed with her boyfriend, and do it more than once? And then act morally outraged at Pete! Pot, meet kettle! It felt like they just threw that story into play to give them something to do. Henry! In hindsight it's amazing that Rachel had the nerve to act like the injured party towards Lynn. She had an affair with Lynn's husband for heaven's sake, and her mother killed him, albeit by accident. Rachel really was a homewrecker of the highest calibre when you think of it. She had affairs with married men not once, not twice, but three times during her time in the village, and in two of those instances the betrayed wife was a friend of hers (Kathy and Sarah).

Maybe Jack and Marian could have conceived a child when he went to Italy to see her after her husband's death in 1991. She kept it from him after he chose to stay with Sarah, but the truth comes out and the child comes to Emmerdale to seek his/her roots....

Even though I would usually agree that a show needs long-running characters as a way of connecting it with its history, I'm willing to make an exception for the Dingles.... Instead I would consider bringing back some names from the past and then add some new characters to breathe new life into the show. I've mentioned several times that Sam Skilbeck would be my first choice to bring back to bolster the dwindling Sugden legacy. Home Farm should again be the seat of the Verney family, bringing old money back to the village, instead of the newly rich families that have owned it since the Tates. Maybe Joseph Tate could return to visit his parents graves and then hang around, at least for a while. With Leah Bracknell's health issues Zoe could most likely not return, but at least she could be mentioned. And I would also dearly love it if Sandie Merrick would reach out and get in touch with her half-brother Robert, and thereby bring her own family into the fabric of the show. I realize that a lot of current viewers wouldn't know who many of these people are, and many others wouldn't care about their history with the show and would rather keep the Dingles, but this is my personal wish list.

It would be like winning the lottery for me if someone would make the decision to eliminate that family from the show. All of them though, I don't want a single one of them left. I don't care that they've been around for so long now. If long-term characters like Dolly, Kathy, Viv and Terry could be dismissed the way they were there's no reason why the Dingles should be safe. I realize though that it will never happen. For some reason a lot of people seem to like them. I'm so looking forward to more 1991 episodes. After all, it's pre-Dingle!

Loved the episode posted above, with one exception.... The Dingles! This story, with Tina getting revenge on Luke McAllister for her brother's death, was the beginning of my hatred for the family. I hated it back then, and I still hate it now. Tina got better when this dreadful story was over and she started working for Frank Tate instead, but the rest of this obnoxious family stayed the same and has been polluting the show ever since. God how I hate that entire clan!

Great! I watched the episodes with Henry's death recently, and finally got an answer to why Marian didn't come to his funeral. Jack said that he hadn't been able to get in contact with her since she was on safari somewhere in Africa. It was just a throwaway line, which is probably why I didn't remember it. But it was a relief to finally have an answer, because it just struck me as very odd that she didn't attend her own father's funeral. It was flimsy excuse by the show of course just so they wouldn't have to cast a Marian (if neither Gail Harrison nor Debbi Blythe was able/willing to do it) but at least it was explained.

So true! But I should have known that she would leave sooner rather than later. She's an established actress with an already successful career and those usually only stay for a limited time on shows like Emmerdale.

Well, I guess I must try to keep more up to date with spoilers, because

I hope that Arthur discovering the footage of Emma and Ashley isn't the beginning of the end for Emma, but I fear it might be. Crimes have gone unpunished on this show before though, and Gillian Kearney is so fascinating to watch that it would be a shame to lose her.

I know it was wrong of me, but i have to admit I enjoyed Paddy making a fool of himself by storming into Pierce's office and hitting him. I hate that they're trying to use this story to push Paddy and Rhona back together. With the exception of the Dingle clan Paddy is my least favourite character on the show nowadays. I wish they would write him out. On another note. Today 39 years ago, June 29th 1978 (which coincidentally also was a Thursday), in episode 460, Matt Skilbeck and Dolly Acaster were married. Joe Sugden was best man, and Amos Brearly gave the bride away.

Trump is making the US more unpopular around the world, except in Russia and Israel..... http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/ According to this survey the confidence in the US president has dropped here in Sweden from 93% to 10% since Barack Obama left office. It's the biggest drop of all countries. Compare that to Russia where the numbers go in the other direction, up from 11% to 53%.

It's really a sad reflection on men's tennis that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are still dominating. The younger generation have obviously failed to grab their chance when the two big ones were out of action for most of last year.