Stat's entertainment. EMMERDALE IN NUMBERS AS SOAP H P HITS EPISODE 10,000. (2024)

Byline: SANJEETA BAINS

NOT many in the early days could have imagined how exciting - and dangerous - life would be in what appears from the outside to be such a sleepy village.

Alongside the barnyard births, ITV soap Emmerdale has had a heap of upheaval.

The inhabitants have suffered mass deaths, murder sprees, kidnappings, freak accidents and disastrous weddings. The show reaches an impressive milestone tonight, with its 10,000th episode.

It all began in 1972 and was first pitched as "the living story of the Sugden family - the excitement of country life around".

Fans have loved seeing life in the Dales and it is now Britain's second-longest running soap (after Corrie). Here we look at the stats from Emmerdale's 52 years...

[emailprotected] ...official serial killers It's not quite as risky as living in Hollyoaks, but it still boasts a few who've bumped off three or more to land themselves a serial killer tag.

Sometimes the killers even take out other murderers, as Cameron Murray (Dominic Power) proved in 2012 when he took out Carl King (Tom Lister) after taking residents hostage.

Lachlan White (Thomas Atkinson) murdered much of his family and his best friend in 2018/19, getting rid of his grandfather Lawrence (John Bowe) and Chrissie (Louise Marwood) in a car crash.

Most recently, in 2022, Meena Jutla (Paige Sandhu) began her reign of terror. She killed four before being caught while plotting the murder of newlyweds Billy Fletcher and Dawn Taylor on their wedding day - Billy having dumped Meena for Dawn.

"Villanelle [from Killing Eve] was the inspiration for Meena but I didn't know that when I auditioned," says Paige. "I didn't ...dearly departed (but just 1 deadly plane crash) 164

The first death was in the very first episode - as it marked the funeral of Jacob Sugden, patriarch of the Sugden family and farmer at Emmerdale Farm - since then there have been 163 losses.

DISASTER of infamous

Not everyone gets the big send off though.

Harriet Finch crashed a quad bike during 2022's big storm storyline and never got seen again.

Actress Katherine

Dow Blyton said: "I got so many lovely messages. People going 'She hasn't even had a funeral, where's her body?' I just felt a bit sorry for Harriet."

Aftermath plane crash

Every village disaster - fire, storms, crashes etc - usually leads to a mass clear out of characters.

The most spectacular was of course the infamous plane crash which killed four regulars, five background characters and all 138 on the plane.

wers to win tings war erial storyline culminated in her wn sister hostage, watched by 4.5 helped Emmerdale twist the knife w ITV soap Coronation Street, by aking it in the ratings for the first time.

...viewe a ratin Meena's serial killers taking her own sis million viewers. It into fellow C overtaking r In the days of jus channels, f however. The soap was the infamous 199 followed by T Frank Tate's he Woolpack explosion 199 the 2004 s f just a handful of terrestrial , the viewing figures were another story oap's highest-rated episode ever amous 1993 plane crash (18 million), y Kim Tate's exit in 1999 (15 million), s 1997 heart attack (13 million), The xplosion in 1998 (12.5 million), and 004 village storm (11.19 million).

4.5m ...episodes that had just 8 main characters For a few months in the soap's original incarnation Emmerdale Farm - which It was called for 16 years, by the way - the cast consisted of just eight main characters.

They were widow Annie Sugden (Sheila Mercier), her children Jack (Andrew Burt) and Joe Sugden (Frazer Hines), and Peggy Skilbeck (Jo Kendall), plus Peggy's husband Matt Skilbeck (Frederick Pyne) factory owner Henry Wilks (Arthur Pentelow), his daughter Marian (Gail Harrison) and Sam Pearson (Toke Townley).

It was intended to run for 26 episodes over 13 weeks. The first line spoken on October 16, 1972, was Peggy saying to her husband: "Matt, who's she?" She was talking about Marian, watching their dad's funeral cortege while out riding.

Sheila, who left the show in 1996, returned for a final time in 2009, at the age of 90, for the funeral of Jack (later played by Clive Hornby). She said at the time it was "a fitting way to celebrate the life and memory of one of Emmerdale's dearest characters".

...weddings (& lots of wedding drama) 118

Not all big days result in saying "I do" - there's been jiltings, bigamous marriages and even the groom faking his death.

In August 2015, Debbie Dingle and Pete Barton's wedding day was quite something.

First, her affair with Pete's brother Ross was exposed when a voice recording was played to all the guests. Then a helicopter crashed, injuring Debbie.

When she later tried to wed Joe Tate in 2018, he was supposedly killed on their wedding day, though it later turned out he was on the run after faking his death.

In November 2015 vicar Ashley Thomas remarried Laurel Dingle after being diagnosed with early-onset dementia. But happiness didn't last as he died in 2017.

Charlotte Bellamy, who plays Laurel, said: "It's a real heart-melter, but that makes what happens next even more traumatic."

...dognapping complaints 448

Viewers were so horrified by scenes aired in 2016 that 448 complained to Ofcom.

But unlike its fellow soaps, it wasn't reported for a twisted Walford baby swap storyline and or a Corrie bloodbath. It was down to Charity Dingle and Ross Barton's dognapping plot. Why? Because viewers were concerned it may lead to real-life copycats. Ofcom ruled there was no case to answer. But it certainly got a lot of tongues wagging.

dramatic births 49...

The soap has had a trend for dramatic births, with Belle Dingle born on Christmas Day 1998 in a pig sty.

In 2017, Emma Barton confessed to Moira Barton she killed husband James.

BLAZE Moira & Emma

They fought and started a barn fire, but Moira went into labour and Emma saved her and delivered Isaac Dingle. In 2015, Moses Dingle was born to Chas (Lucy Pargeter) in jail.

In 2018, Chas's baby Grace died after 30 minutes.

Lucy, who filmed scenes after having twins, said: "It was the first time I've properly sobbed doing a storyline and not been able to stop when they said cut."

CAPTION(S):

STONE DEAD Carl King was killed by a brick-wielding Cameron Murray in 2012

BLAZE Moira & Emma

DEATH GRIP Belle Dingle is dragged away by Lachlan

FARM LIFE Cast when the show started in 1972

KILLER Paige Sandhu as sinister Meena Jutla