I Am A Swede

I didn't mean for anyone to feel responsible in any way for my state of mind. If I did that I'm genuinely sorry. I enjoy reading this thread even though it's content is very depressing sometimes, because it's still an enlightening read, and at the end of the day I want to believe that somehow people with intelligence and common sense, like the posters here, will prevail and we will start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But of course, then you get news like this, and it all feels depressing again... http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38481521 The new year has hardly even begun, but there has already been an attack.....

It's not New Year's Eve without this....

Something I found so sad when I saw it on the news today is that all over Europe they're putting up roadblocks in major cities and calling in extra police and military so that people can go out and celebrate New Year's Eve with a little less fear of terrorist attacks.... They interviewed people in Copenhagen and they were grateful for this and felt it was a good idea. And in Gothenburg here in Sweden a big shopping mall decided to close early today because there were rumours that youth gangs were planning to shoot fireworks at people in retaliation for what they perceive as harassment from the police. How did we get to this point where people feel the need for these extraordinary measures to be taken just so they can go out and celebrate a new year? Watching that and reading this thread has really made me feel a bit depressed. There's just so much hate and ugliness in the world right now, and there seems to be no end in sight.

I do so wish that Debbie wasn't returning. But I guess it's inevitable.... As for Charity, I'm sure people won't agree with me, but I wouldn't grieve at all if they wrote her out. She's been so prominent over the years and done so much that there's really not all that much left for her to do. It won't happen of course, but one can dream, right?

^^ Well, she's not, so I'm sure she can support him.

Matt really was a special character. You rarely see someone like him today. Most people would probably consider him boring, but he was one of those essential characters that grounds a show. I loved him and Dolly as a couple, and it's sad that their marriage fell apart. Frederick's Matt worked so well with both Katharine Barker's and Jean Rogers' Dolly. It would be lovely to have them both back, even for a visit, but at the same time maybe it's best that they stay away so that their memories can remain intact.

Today I think we all wish Happy Birthday to an Emmerdale Farm legend.... Frederick Pyne, who played Matt Skilbeck for 1364 episodes between October 16th 1972 and December 7th 1989, turns 80 years old today! I think it's quite logical that he left shortly after the show dropped the "Farm" and became simply "Emmerdale", because if anybody embodies the Emmerdale Farm era, it's Matt Skilbeck.

A quite nice Christmas episode of Emmerdale, although they did spend too much time on the Dingles (not surprisingly) and way too little on the Thomas' family. This was after all Ashley's last Christmas, so they could have featured them a little more.

Just had to add that John Middleton was absolutely fantastic during the whole episode! His departure will leave a huge hole! And I think that they did a great job with the actors portraying Laurel, Aaron, Chas and Doug. They resembled Charlotte, Danny, Lucy and Duncan just enough to be easily identifiable, but at the same time they were different enough to make Ashley's confusion believable.

Yes, I've watched it, and it was difficult to watch, but at the same time it was bloody brilliant. It was the best episode of Emmerdale in years. Seeing the old familiar sights again, however brief, also made me realize how much the move to a village set has changed the tone of the show. I understand that it is much easier, and probably cheaper, to film on a secluded set, but the authenticity that filming in a real village brought is lost.

The golden age of Emmerdale Farm....

I can't believe Christmas is only a few days away....

I guess you mean World War 1?

Benny Andersson from ABBA turns 70 today, December 16th and I think it's fitting to say.... And here is the birthday boy playing the accordion accompanying his regular collaborator Helen Sjöholm

Wow, this is awesome! I had no idea this song existed!

You know, I never really thought about Joe that way, but you're absolutely right. He should have fit in to the "new" Emmerdale much more than he did. Certainly better than someone like Matt would have. In a way Matt embodies the "old" Emmerdale Farm, and he would have been very out of place on the show in the 90s. I will forever be grateful though that both he and Dolly made it out of Beckindale alive. The first half of the 1990s was actually quite a good period. I think the show really started to lose its way in the middle of the decade. The growing number of Dingles that popped up didn't help, but I think the biggest sign of trouble was actually turning Kim into some kind of superbitch. Her coming back from the dead, watching Frank die, plotting to commit insurance fraud etc was so out of style for the show, and it opened the door for a whole new kind of stories that would have seem hopelessly out of place a few years earlier.