Emmerdale (known as Emmerdale Farm until 1989) is a British soap opera set in Emmerdale (known as Beckindale until 1994), a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale Farm was first broadcast on 16 October 1972. Produced by ITV Yorkshire, it has been filmed at their Leeds studio since its inception. The programme has been broadcast in every ITV region. 

The series originally appeared during the afternoon until 1978, when it was moved to an early-evening time slot in most regions; London and Anglia followed during the mid-1980s. Until December 1988, Emmerdale took seasonal breaks; since then, it has been broadcast year-round.

Episodes air on ITV weekday evenings at 19:00, with a second Thursday episode at 20:00. The programme began broadcasting in high definition on 10 October 2011. Emmerdale is the United Kingdom's second-longest-running television soap opera (after ITV's Coronation Street), and attracts an average of five to seven million viewers per episode.

October 2012 marked the 40th anniversary of the show. During that month, the show made a live episode to mark the anniversary. 

The premise of Emmerdale Farm was similar to the BBC radio soap opera The Archers, focusing on a family, a farm and characters in a nearby village. The programme's farmyard filming was originally modelled on RTÉ's The Riordans, an Irish soap opera which was broadcast from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s. The Riordans broke new ground for soap operas by being filmed largely outdoors (on a farm, owned on the programme by Tom and Mary Riordan) rather than in a studio—the usual practice of British and American soap operas. The programme pioneered farmyard location shooting, with farm animals and equipment. During the 1960s and 1970s, outdoor filming of television programmes with outdoor broadcast units (OBUs) was in its infancy due to higher costs and reliance on the weather. The Riordans' success demonstrated that a soap opera could be filmed largely outdoors, and Yorkshire Television sent people to its set in County Meath to see the programme's production firsthand.

Emmerdale has had a large number of characters since it began, with its cast gradually expanding in size. The programme has also had changing residences and businesses for its characters, including a bed-and-breakfast and a factory.

The Miffield estate was the largest employer in the village of Beckindale, 39 miles (63 km) from Bradford and 52 miles (84 km) from Leeds. Lord Miffield leased Emmerdale Farm, on the edge of the village, to the Sugden family during the 1850s in gratitude after Josh Sugden sacrificed his life for the earl's son in the Crimean War. Josh's grandson Joseph married Margaret Oldroyd and their son, Jacob, was born in January 1916. During the 1930s, Jacob Sugden purchased Emmerdale Farm. In 1945 he married Annie Pearson, daughter of farm labourer Sam Pearson. Margaret Sugden died in 1963, and Joseph died the following year.

Jacob Sugden ran the farm into the ground, drinking away its profits. The badly-maintained farm's future looked bleak at his death on 10 October 1972. He was survived by his wife Annie, two sons and a daughter: Jack, the eldest; Peggy and Joe, the youngest of the three. These characters formed the basis of Emmerdale Farm.

Character types on Emmerdale have included "bad boys", such as Cain Dingle, Ross Barton, Carl King, Robert Sugden and Aaron Livesy; "bitches", such as Kim Tate, Charity Tate, Nicola King, Chrissie White, Kelly Windsor and Sadie King; "villains", such as Cameron Murray, Lachlan White, Pierce Harris, Steph Stokes, Rosemary King, Gordon Livesy, Emma Barton and Sally Spode; caring characters, such as Laurel Thomas, Emily Kirk, Lisa Dingle, Paddy Kirk, Ashley Thomas and Ruby Haswell; sassy females, such as Chas Dingle, Val Pollard, Viv Hope, Nicola King, Faith Dingle, Rebecca White and Leyla Harding, and comedy characters such as Kerry Wyatt, Bernice Blackstock, David Metcalfe, Val Pollard, Paddy Kirk, Faith Dingle, Seth Armstrong, Dan Spencer and Jimmy King. The show has had a number of matriarchs, including Diane Sugden, Viv Hope, Lisa Dingle, Annie Sugden, Faith Dingle and Moira Barton. Older characters in Emmerdale include Edna Birch, Betty Eagleton, Eric Pollard, Pearl Ladderbanks, Sandy Thomas, Seth Armstrong, Alan Turner, Sam Pearson, Lily Butterfield and Len Reynolds. 

The first episode of Emmerdale Farm, aired on 16 October 1972, began with Jacob Sugden's funeral. Jacob upset the family when he left the farm to his eldest son, Jack, who left home at 18 in 1964 and had not returned. Jack appeared in the opening episode, avoiding the funeral and waiting for the Sugdens at Emmerdale Farm. Over the next few months Jack sold a share of the farm to his mother Annie, brother Joe, sister Peggy and grandfather Sam Pearson. Emmerdale Farm Ltd was formed when Henry Wilks bought Sam's share of the estate. The first episode, along with the others, have been repeated and released on a variety of media.[3]

Characters introduced in the first episode were: 

    Annie Sugden (Sheila Mercier)

    Jack Sugden (Andrew Burt)

    Peggy Skilbeck (Jo Kendall)

    Matt Skilbeck (Frederick Pyne)

    Joe Sugden (Frazer Hines)

    Sam Pearson (Toke Townley)

    Amos Brearly (Ronald Magill)

    Henry Wilks (Arthur Pentelow)

    Marian Wilks (Gail Harrison)

    Alec Saunders (Alan Tucker)

Kim Tate is heading back to Emmerdale – but who is the legendary character and what makes her so brilliant?

Here's Kim in 1997 returning from the dead!! And, almost 20 years after she left Emmerdale, Kim is set to make an explosive comeback at a Home Farm masquerade ball airing in October.

 It’s the news that soap fans have been waiting for – Kim Tate is finally returning to Emmerdale.

Claire King, who plays Kim, said about the big reveal: “As a Yorkshire lass myself, I’m absolutely thrilled to be back in Yorkshire for a fun-filled cameo, once again reaping havoc in the Dales!

“As there are still some familiar faces from 20 years ago it’s felt like coming home and I couldn’t have had a more lovely welcome from such a talented cast and crew, so thank you everyone! It’s literally been a blast!”

But with it being nearly 20 years since we last saw her in the Dales, here is a quick reminder of why Kim went down in soap history as one of the best Emmerdale characters ever…
Who is Emmerdale legend Kim Tate?

Kim was played by Claire between 1989 and 1999 and quickly became a firm fan favourite with her money-hungry schemes and man-eating ways. Claire went on to appear in shows like Bad Girls and Coronation Street following her departure from the Dales and even enjoyed stints in reality TV shows like Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.
What made her such a brilliant villain?

During her decade on the show, Kim cemented herself as one of the best soap “super bitches” ever to grace our TV screens, and here’s why…
Her numerous affairs.
After marrying Frank Tate, who was old enough to be her dad, Kim had her eyes firmly on his wallet. But when she became friends with Neil Kincaid, who was much closer to her in age and also shared her love for horses, the pair started a secret relationship. Frank later found out and this lead to the pair’s divorce.

Kim and Frank later married for the second time in 1994 but once again she had an affair. This time with Dave Glover. Frank worked out that his wife was playing away again, leading to him hiring a private detective to catch them out.
Faking her own death

After Dave died in a house fire, Kim disappeared from the village, only for the police to find someone matching her description dead behind the wheel of a car. Frank went to identify the body – but little did he know Kim had framed him for her murder and he soon found himself in jail. Frank was then in for an even bigger shock when Kim reappeared on his doorstep just as he got out of prison!
 Watching Frank Tate die.

The shock of Kim’s return from the “dead” lead to Frank having a fatal heart attack, but instead of helping her husband, Kim stood back and watched her him die, infamously telling him: “You’re a dinosaur Frank, and we all know happened to them.”

She then went down in soap history when she took out her compact mirror, used it to check he had stopped breathing, before cooly reapplying her make up and leaving.

Almost killing Kathy Brookman

After inheriting half of Home Farm in Frank’s will, Kim started a relationship with Steve Marchant who she later went on to marry. The pair struggled for cash and started stealing horses to sell for a profit. But one day Steve ran Kathy over with the horse box, and despite being involved Kim later convinces Kathy that Steve was entirely to blame.

Attacking Chris Tate

The police soon realised that scheming Kim wasn’t a reliable witness in Steve’s trial for Kathy’s hit and run, and she decides to flee the village with son James.

Before she went, Kim went to see Chris to get her hands on some cash. When he wouldn’t hand it over she tried seducing him, and when that didn’t work, she hit him over the head with a paperweight, tipped him out of his wheelchair and poured whisky over him before fleeing in a helicopter waiting outside Home Farm.

Emmerdale archive pictures: ITV/REX/Shutterstock