Emmerdale!

Image via WikipediaI remember being home from school one day in the seventies and watching the very first episode of Emmerdale, the photograph shows a scene from the first episode, at one thirty in the afternoon on ITV. It was part of ITV`s first venture into daytime television and it was very good.In those days it was called Emmerdale Farm and was well acted with good writing and some excellent characters like Annie and Joe Sugden, his brother Jack and Henry Wilks.It was a gritty realistic portrayal of rural life and as much a drama as a soap.Very different from today`s Emmerdale.In those days it was distinctive from a city or town drama, it was about the countryside and the distinctive problems that people have there.
Today`s Emmerdale could be set in any big city. The characters and the storylines are more Eastenders than the Emmerdale Farm of old.Seeing a sheep or a cow in Emmerdale is now about as likely as seeing one in Walford Square.I also think the writing and story lines are that much poorer. In the old days the stories came out of the location and the characters now they seem just to be put together for the greatest shock value to attract the ratings.
I think the change has been a great shame. We now have no drama or soap on television telling the story of country people and we have the nations two most prominent soaps having more in common than differences.It has devalued television drama and given the viewer less choice.
In Britain unlike America we sometimes let series run on after they have lost there shine and  run there time I think Emmerdale is now one such series. It has run aground and is now just a pale imitation of Eastenders. I think if ITV really want to make a new start with there channel as they say they do they should cut out the deadwood and send Emmerdale to that great soap opera grave yard in the sky to join the likes of Brookside, Crossroads and Eldorado!