I Am A Swede

Tara left together with Sean Reynolds. I don't think they did anything special, they just moved away to start a new life somewhere else. Even though it would be great to see Zoe again I don't think it's gonna happen. She's been gone so long now, and there's really no reason why she would move back to the village. She didn't grow up there so she doesn't have that sentimental connection to it, and she has no family left there either.

Maybe they could cut down on episodes? After all, it worked great with two episodes a week up till 1997. I realize they can't cut down that much, but maybe down to four episodes a week. At the very least make it five, like the US daytime soaps.

I bet that not a single Dingle will be among the casualties, even though the show could benefit from losing one or two (or three!) of them. Compare that to the Sugdens and their extended family, they drop dead on a regular basis!

I think I've guessed it.

It started here in episode 527, which originally aired in May 1979

I'm so grateful that you, and some other kind souls, have been uploading old episodes. It's been such a treat to watch them. And compared to today's soaps the difference in quality is immense. Yes, it was slow-moving, and maybe some of the acting wasn't always of the highest calibre, but the stories were realistic and interesting. Stories like the collapse of Joe's marriage to Christine Sharp, or when Seth's son Jimmy and his wife visit Beckindale, and Jimmy tries to hide that he's been in prison. Character-driven stories that didn't rely on plot but told the stories from a more human perspective.

Sickening! I don't understand why they have to do this to Robert.

The Hughes family felt a little like a new version of the Merrick family, and in a way as a replacement. Pat had of course died a few years before Kate, Rachel and Mark turned up, but within a year after their arrival both Jackie and Sandie Merrick were also gone from the show. I never really felt that Joe and Kate were right for each other, but looking back now that was the case with nearly every girl Joe got involved with. He really didn't have much luck in love.

I can't speak for anyone else of course, but I never thought that Kim was dead. I think Kate's friend Fran was with her in the car when she hit Pete Whiteley (Rachel's married lover), so that must be close to these episodes.

Thankfully Emmerdale has never resorted to the back-from-the-dead scenario that is so common on American soaps. Even though there are characters I wish they hadn't killed off I'm still glad they've never gone down that road.

This was such a transitional time for the show. In just a few years several long-running characters left the show: Amos, Henry, Matt, Dolly, Jackie, Sandie and Reverend Hinton. This was also the period when the Tate family moved into Home Farm, and of course the show changed its name from "Emmerdale Farm" to just "Emmerdale". It really was the end of an era.

I think my avatar answers your question about which Dolly I preferred. I hope more 1980s Emmerdale will pop up as well, but until then I have some more 1970s episodes to watch. Hopefully there will be more of that too. Especially 1975, 1976 and 1977, years that are, for the most part, sorely lacking right now.

I think you're mixing up the two Dolly's. Katharine Barker was the original Dolly, and Jean Rogers was the second one. Can't wait to see those two 1986 episodes though. There's so little 1980s Emmerdale Farm on Youtube, at least that I've found so far.

Some early Roxette. This is from their first album "Pearls of Passion", released in 1986.

It will have to be pretty big to top the plane crash episodes....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L0H_w9kBx8

It's true. It's been confirmed on the ITV website http://www.itv.com/emmerdale/news/bye-val-charlie-hardwick-to-leave-the-dales