I Am A Swede

An absolutely magnificent performance by a marvelous performer in her prime.

ABBA in Spanish!

The affair between Jack and Rachel came out of nowhere, and even though they had both done this before (he cheated on his former wife Pat, and she had had affairs with two married men before, Pete Whiteley and Chris Tate) it always felt a bit forced. Rachel's death, when Graham pushed her off the cliff, is one that really surprised me. This was before internet and spoilers and I had no idea what was gonna happen. In a twist of irony Graham later died the same way, when the car he and Kathy traveled in went over a cliff. Kathy managed to scramble to safety but Graham died. Edward Peel, who played Tony Cairns here had previously been the second actor to portray Tom Merrick, ex-husband of Pat and father to Sandie Merrick. The Cairns were thankfully not around for long, but long enough for Mrs. Cairns to develop feelings for Zoe! Lovely to see Viv and Terry (Yes, I'm still mad about their demise) and Viv's first husband Vic. (Oops, I almost forgot that Viv had been married before, to Scott's father ) And of course Alan and Seth. I had almost forgotten about Dee, Eric's much younger wife from the Philippines! Another character who came and went without leaving any lasting impression.

Yes, she did. In the early episodes she had three children, Jackie, Sandie and Tommy. When she came back in 1980 only Jackie and Sandie came with her. I don't think Tommy was ever mentioned again. It's quite a strange blunder for a show that was otherwise very good with continuity back then.

I've been watching some episodes from early 1974, when Ruth (later Pat) Merrick came home and visited her sister Janie. It's fascinating to see Annie's harsh attitude towards her and her dislike of Ruth's/Pat's interest in Jack. I would love to see episodes from the early 1980's when both Jack and Ruth/Pat had come back to Beckindale and had begun to get romantically involved again, and see whether Annie's attitude had changed. Not to mention the revelation that Jackie Merrick was indeed Jack's son. This rumour was already mentioned in the very early episodes, much to Annie's displeasure.

Another underrated gem.

In my opinion one of ABBA's very best songs.

"It's a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done. It's a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known" One of the most classic lines in literature, and in movies. And this story also begins with a classic line: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvrpki345RM

Great to see all those familiar faces. I hope more episodes from the 1980s will get posted on Youtube. I love all the 1970s episodes that have been posted, but you can never get enough episodes from the good old days.

RIP Lesley Gore

That's all I have to say

That happened to Emmerdale as well.

Yes, that's definitely Tony Audenshaw.

That's Michael and Elsa Feldmann. Their mother, Elizabeth, married Eric Pollard and died in the plane crash. Elsa and Nick later had daughter Alice together, the little girl that Kathy looked after when Nick went to prison.

I have the four volumes available for purchase through amazon.co.uk and they only reach episode 116, screened in 1973. I do wish they would release more though. It was only on twice a week with seasonal breaks back then, so it shouldn't be impossible to get at least the 1970s episodes without too many volumes. Especially since there were long breaks in both 1976 and 1979. Only 38 episodes aired in 1976, and the show was off the air from 18 May 1976 to 3 January 1977. I'm not sure why there was such a long break that year. In 1979 there was a strike at ITV, so the show had a break from 5 July 1979 to 8 January 1980. During that break there was also a major cast change when Katharine Barker left her role as Dolly Skilbeck and was replaced by Jean Rogers. I can't for the life of me understand why they've chosen to take this direction with Robert. Like you said, he is such an important character to the show's history and with such potential for the future. But, he's not a Dingle, and therefore obviously not important enough. You mentioned Pat's daughter in an earlier post. She (Sandie Merrick) is Robert's half-sister, just like Victoria is, but I can't help but wonder if they even remember she exists? It's a shame they never gave Joe any children, apart from his step-children Mark and Rachel. Of course they're both dead too. With this development for Robert it's only a matter of time before Victoria is the only real Sugden left. I refuse to count Andy and his two kids as real Sugdens. Especially since Debbie Dingle is the kids' mother. She is one of the worst characters ever on this show.

That does indeed suck. It seemed like the show was on the mend from the posts here, but this is a giant step backwards. Destroying Robert like that, and for someone like Katie! Why couldn't they have made Andy responsible if anyone had to cause her death? Why did they have to kill her at all? Now there's no way to bring her back in the future if they had wanted to. It's such a short-sighted way of operating, killing characters off like this. Oh well, I still have a few episodes from the late 1970s to watch, and when I'm done with those hopefully some more will have been uploaded. There's also some material from the 1980s and early 1990s I haven't watched yet. I also have one of the dvd releases from the show's beginning left to watch.

What's happened? Don't tell me they're throwing Robert under the bus just to give Katie a dramatic sendoff?!! Robert has always been treated badly, both by the writers and on the show itself. I never could understand why Jack so consistently took Andy's side over Robert's. Well, I can always console myself with older episodes on Youtube. I've watched close to 50 of them the past few days, and I hope more will get uploaded.

I've been watching these old episodes all day. Mostly from 1978 and 1979, but I've also watched some from late 1989 (just when the Tates arrived in Beckindale), one from New Year's Eve 1974 (episode 222) and one from early 1976 which ended with the tragic train crash that killed Sam and Sally Skilbeck, Matt and Peggy's twins (episode 288). It's such a treat to see these old episodes, and I absolutely love the show back then. The difference compared to now is immense, it's more of a regular drama series than a soapopera which it is now. All the familiar faces I remember from watching this show as a child, Annie, Sam, Matt, Dolly (the original one), Amos... Also some early Seth, and we get to see his wife and children! The reverend back then, Donald Hinton, reminds me of Alan Turner, both in looks and the way he speaks. I'm in Emmerdale-heaven!

This is fantastic! I love watching these old episodes.