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Emmerdale Farm: Volume Two (TV)
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (6th October 2009). |
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The Show
 Emmerdale Farm Volume 2 (YTV, 1973) 
Created by Kevin Laffan for Yorkshire Television in 1972, Emmerdale Farm was originally produced for broadcast in a daytime slot. In 1972, the Postmaster General, Christopher Chataway, lifted the legal restrictions on the number of hours television could be broadcast in a day; this allowed channels to deliver programming in afternoons, effectively marking the end of the traditional afternoon ‘closedown’ during which broadcasters would ‘shut shop’ until the early evening. ITV broadcasters thus acquired an extra twenty hours of broadcasting time per week, and this resulted in the development of a number of programmes specifically tailored for delivery in afternoon slots. The bulk of these programmers were created for audiences consisting primarily of retirees, housewives and shift workers. ITV filled its extra twenty broadcasting hours with new light entertainment magazine-style shows such as Thames’ Tea Break, hosted by Michael and Mary Parkinson, dramas such as Crown Court (Granada, 1972-84) and soap operas like Emmerdale Farm. Daytime television has changed relatively little over the past thirty-seven years; but over time broadcasters have moved most popular soap operas such as Emmerdale Farm into prime-time evening slots where they continue to attract huge numbers of viewers. (Despite this, there are still some soap operas that are broadcast in an afternoon slot, including the BBC’s ‘occupational soap’ Doctors, 2000- .) 
Originally, Emmerdale Farm was modelled on Irish broadcaster RTÉ’s soap opera The Riordans (1965-79) (see Byrne, 2009: en). Set in County Kilkenny, The Riordans focused on the running of a farm owned by Tom and Mary Riordan and their children Jude, Michael and Benjy. The Riordans is a historically-significant programme principally for its reliance on real locations. Traditionally, soap operas had been filmed in-studio: using real locations presented a number of problems for production teams, including added expenses in transporting crews and equipment to and from locations, the unpredictability of the weather and problems in recording live sound. However, during development of Emmerdale Farm Yorkshire Television decided to adopt some of the strategies that had been deployed in The Riordans, including the use of real locations. To this end, Emmerdale Farm was almost wholly shot in the Yorkshire Dales, with the opening credits featuring sweeping shots of the majestic but cold and lonely landscape of rural Yorkshire (accompanied by the series’ iconic wistful music). 
Throughout its long history, Emmerdale Farm has undergone many changes. Originally intended to run for no more than twenty-six episodes (broadcast over thirteen weeks), in 1978 the series was moved into an early evening slot, and in the 1988 it became serialised and entered year-round production as a continuous soap. Originally, Emmerdale Farm focused almost exclusively on the titular farm, owned by the Sugden family; developing concomitantly with the emphasis on year-round production was a widening of focus away from Emmerdale Farm and onto the inhabitants of the nearby village of Beckindale. The cast underwent a number of changes, and a significant number of younger characters were introduced. The reduction of the show’s focus on agricultural life was ultimately signalled in 1989, when the series was renamed Emmerdale. By that time, the show’s original creator, Kevin Laffan, had already disassociated himself from his creation: Laffan had originally devised Emmerdale Farm as a realistic series that intended to ‘strip the public of its sentimentalism about farming and country folk’, but in 1985 he left the show following a disagreement with the producers over Emmerdale Farm’s increasing focus on sensationalistic sex-focused storylines (Barker, 2003: en). The first episode of Emmerdale Farm opened with the funeral of Annie Sugden’s (Sheila Mercier) alcoholic husband Jacob, and the bulk of the show’s early episodes dealt with Annie’s attempts to reinvigorate the farm’s fortunes, with the help of her children Joe (Frazer Hines), Jack (Andrew Burt) and Peggy (Jo Kendall). Laffan was fond of strong female characters, and this is evident in his creation of the strong-minded and independent Annie Sugden. 
Although the Sugdens’ Emmerdale Farm is at the centre of the drama, the hub of the community depicted in the series is The Woolpack Inn, which is run by Henry Wilks (Arthur Pentelow) and Amos Brearly (Ronald Magill). In this second volume of the series, which is essentially the second series (beginning with episode twenty-seven), Wilks is seen to be romantically pursuing Annie Sugden. The episodes contained in this set also deal with Jack’s decision to hand over a share of the farm to the other members of his family. (In his will, Jacob had left the farm exclusively to Jack.) Conforming to stereotypes, the rural community depicted in Emmerdale Farm is shown to be insular and suspicious of outsiders, including Wilks and the wandering vagrant Trash (Leonard Maguire). A fascinating character filled with self-loathing, Trash is introduced in the first episode contained in this set, during the regional sheepdog trials. (‘He’s always up here about this time’, one character tells another: ‘He stays about a month or so, and then he’s off again till next year’.) After resorting to stealing empty beer bottles from the refreshments tent run by Amos, with the plan of returning them to a pub in exchange for money, Trash finds himself taken in by Jack. When Sharon Crossthwaite (Louise Jameson) – a local seventeen year old girl and a cousin of Annie Sugden – vanishes, Trash is immediately suspected of having a hand in her disappearance. The suspicion that falls upon him precipitates a deep despair in Trash, who appears to commit suicide by jumping out of Jack’s window. Only after Trash’s death does Jack discover that the vagrant’s real name is Ian Macintyre, and that he is a former librarian who apparently has a wife and sister in Berwick. Reflecting on Trash’s death, Jack asserts that ‘I don’t know what life or society […] did to Trash, but I know I hate it for it. He was a dirty, stinking example of what men can do to men. And all I ever did was to tell him to get washed’. Although Trash is only present for nine episodes, in one way or another his presence (and, following his death, his absence) echoes throughout all of the episodes contained in this collection, his lonely death driving Jack to seek some form of justice for Trash’s treatment. 
In reality, Trash had earlier saved Sharon from being sexually assaulted by Jim Latimer (Miles Retherman). At the sheepdog trials, Jim and his friends Gary (Paul Rosebury) and Robin (Mike Grady) ogle Sharon: ‘You doing anything tonight, Sharon? I’m free if you’re easy’, one of them yells at her. Following a ribbing by his friends over his interest in Sharon, Jim follows her through the woods and watches her from afar. When Sharon notices his presence, Jim approaches her and tells her sinisterly, ‘Nice here, isn’t it? Quiet [….] I’ve always had my eye on you. You know that? Now I’ve got you, haven’t I? All to myself’. The episode closes with a shot of Sharon’s panicked face. (The threat of sexual violence in a rural community is reminiscent of Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs, released a year prior to the broadcast of these episodes.) In the next episode, Sharon almost manages to escape from Jim before he embraces her: ‘You didn’t think I’d let you go as easy as that, did you?’ Jim drags Sharon to the ruins of a nearby abbey; he forces himself on Sharon but is interrupted by Trash, who throws a stone at Jim and thereby gives Sharon the opportunity to escape. (Incidentally, the events involving Sharon Crossthwaite and Trash were reproduced in the second novel based on Emmerdale Farm storylines, Lee Mackenzie’s Emmerdale Farm: Prodigal’s Progress, published in 1977.) 
The storylines involving Trash’s tragic death and Sharon’s disappearance are at the heart of these early episodes of Emmerdale Farm. Although Emmerdale Farm may not have achieved the public acceptance that city-based soap operas such as Coronation Street (Granada, 1962- ) and Eastenders (BBC, 1985- ) have, the show is a superb example of a dramatic series that has a strong regional identity and is arguably as iconic of life in Northern England as Eastenders is of life in London. These early episodes represent Emmerdale Farm at its best; the focus is clearly on rural life, but viewers of today’s Emmerdale who expect the early years of the series to be little more than a tame rural drama may be shocked at how hard-hitting these early episodes are, particularly in the show’s handling of Sharon Crossthwaite’s fate – which, thanks to the episodes’ realistic approach, is arguably more effective and troubling than some of the more sensationalistic acts of violence in contemporary soap operas. The episodes do not appear to suffer from any edits. Episodes thirty-five and thirty-six are presented as a double episode, presumably edited together for a repeat screening some time after their initial broadcast. 
Disc One: Episode 27, 22 January 1973 Episode 28, 23 January 1973 Episode 29, 29 January 1973 Episode 30, 30 January 1973 Episode 31, 5 February 1973 Episode 32, 6 February 1973 Disc Two: Episode 33, 12 February 1973 Episode 34, 13 February 1973 Episodes 35/36, 19 February 1973 Episode 37, 26 February 1973 Episode 38, 27 February 1973 Episode 39, 5 March 1973 Disc Three: Episode 40, 6 March 1973 Episode 41, 12 March 1973 Episode 42, 13 March 1973 Episode 43, 19 March 1973 Episode 44, 20 March 1973 Episode 45, 26 March 1973 Disc Four: Episode 46, 27 March 1973 Episode 47, 2 April 1973 Episode 48, 3 April 1973 Episode 49, 9 April 1973 Episode 50, 10 April 1973 Episode 51, 16 April 1973 Episode 52, 17 April 1973
Video
Shot on a mixture of 16mm film (for location work) and videotape-recorded studio footage, these episodes of Emmerdale Farm look very good but exhibit some tape wear. However, considering the age of the material this is to be expected and the damage should not detract from one’s enjoyment of these episodes. 
Break bumpers are intact; the episodes are presented in their original broadcast screen ratio of 4:3.
Audio
Audio is presented via a two-channel mono track. Live sound in some of the exterior scenes is drowned out by ambient noise: for example, some of the dialogue during the sheepdog trials is drowned out by the sound of the wind. However, the audio tracks of the episodes presented here show little damage. There are no subtitles.
Extras
Sadly, there is no contextual material.
Overall
These early episodes of Emmerdale Farm are vastly different from the show’s current format: realistic and hard-hitting, these episodes are quite strong in content, especially considering the fact that the series was originally broadcast in a daytime slot. As such, these episodes should appeal to more than just soap opera fans: those who enjoy realistic television drama of the 1960s and 1970s (such as, for example, ABC/Thames’ Public Eye, 1965-75) should find much to engage their interest here. Sources: Barker, Dennis, 2003: ‘Obituaries: Kevin Laffan’. The Guardian (20 March, 2003) Byrne, Andrea, 1979: ‘The plough and the stars: how TV's revolutionary Riordans changed Ireland’. The Independent (8 February, 2009) Kirby, Terry, 2006: ‘Emmerdale: the village that won over a nation’. The Independent (15 July, 2006) For more information, please visit the homepage of Network DVD
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