I Am A Swede

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.

And it was done very thoroughly too. In just over two years (May 1989-August 1991) the show lost Sandie Merrick, Jackie Merrick, Caroline Bates, Rev. Donald Hinton, Matt Skilbeck, Amos Brearly, Dolly Skilbeck, Sam Skilbeck and Henry Wilks. All long-running characters. Caroline and Amos did make more appearances, but only in a recurring capacity.

She's just always been such a bore and a miserable little bitch. Sorry, I just cannot stand her, and I resent that she and Belle have taken all limelight that should have been Victoria's. It's not surprising though since the Dingles have been the favoured ones and the few remaining Sugden have been treated like an afterthought, especially Victoria.

Don't even put that idea out into the universe! I'm sure Amos and Henry are spinning like crazy in their graves knowing that Chas and Charity Dingle are running the Woolpack! I know it's not gonna happen but I wish they would write out Debbie now and explaining it by saying that she and Andy have hooked up somewhere and they're giving their relationship a try for the sake of their children. It wouldn't fix everything, but it would be a wonderful start. Debbie is a character I have disliked almost from her first episode.

Well, both Jack and Joe had spells away from the village when they could have believably sired children. Jack spent several years in Rome during the 1970s and Joe was in France in the mid 1980s. Jack was also in Rome (again) for almost a year 1988-89 when he tried to make his off-and-on relationship with Henry Wilks' daughter Marian work. While she's technically not a Sugden you also have Sandie Merrick, Robert's maternal half-sister. She should be around 50 years old now, so she should have a family which could be used. Also technically not a Sugden, but almost, is Samuel Skilbeck, the son of Peggy's husband Matt and his second wife Dolly. I would say that in Annie's eyes Matt was as much a son to her as Jack and Joe were.

Thank you. At the very least that clip definitely proves that my theory was wrong. Madeleine certainly doesn't look pregnant at all. At the time I had no problem with the plane disaster story, but in hindsight it set a dangerous precedent for the show. It has become a sort of Holy Grail that the show tries to repeat to boost ratings, like the New Years' storm in which Tricia got killed, and last year's helicopter crash, which was a sad almost pathetic attempt to recreate the original story. While the plane crash left indelible marks on the show and the village the only lasting thing the helicopter crash brought was the death of Val. The sacking of Deena and Billy Hartman is still something that makes me angry when I think of it. It was certainly disrespectful to two of the longest-serving characters on the show at the time, and neither of them had, in my opinion, run their course as characters. But Emmerdale has in recent years not exactly shown any interest in respecting and using their history to drive story. Regarding Pat I would say that she has definitely been forgotten. I doubt that many would even know who she was if she was mentioned. Just like Sandie has been forgotten, which is perhaps even more frustrating, since she is still alive, and she's Robert's sister just as much as Victoria is. It's odd how she simply vanished without a trace. It's almost like the show actively tried to erase the Merrick family. You'd think that after Pat and Jackie had died that Sandie would like to keep in touch with her baby brother, but she's been completely missing and hardly even mentioned after she left. I'm definitely looking forward to any more 1983 episodes. Sadly I haven't saved any of the previously uploaded ones. To be honest I don't even know how to do that. (I'm not particularly good at computers )

Amen! I'm no longer really interested in tennis, and I used to love watching it. I think the mid- to late 90s was the last era I really enjoyed. More charismatic players, and also players with more variation in style. Sampras, Agassi, Kuerten, Chang, Rafter, Ivanisevic, Muster, Moya, and among the women we had of course Queen Steffi!

Wow, I didn't know that Madeleine Howard (Sarah #1) had disliked the plane crash story. I don't know why, but I always believed that she had been pregnant in real life when Sarah was pregnant with Victoria, and that she left because of that. Much like Helen Weir (Pat Sugden) left after she and Clive Hornby (Jack) had a son (they were married in real life for several years). Coincidentally Deena Payne (Viv) took her leave of absence in 2008-09 also for family reasons, and Katharine Barker (Dolly #1) left the show partly because she wanted to spend more time with her son. I liked all of these actresses, so maybe there should be a ban on likeable actresses procreating?

Yes, she was. Sarah started dating Jack when Robert was around 3 years old, so she really was his mother in every way except biologically. If I remember correctly Robert actually wanted to live with Sarah when she and Jack split up, but since she wasn't his biological mother Jack was able to stop him from doing that.

Technically she was his stepmother, but she was the only mother he had ever known. His biological mother Pat died in a car crash when he was just 4 months old.