Emmerdale 50th anniversary: We look back at half a century of the Yorkshire soap and see what fans can expect from tomorrow's dramatic episode

It wasn’t until after the Second World War that Britain started flirting with the soap genre. On radio, The Archers first went on air in 1950, in only a few selected regions of the BBC’s UK network. It went national a year later. On screen, Coronation Street popped up just before the Christmas of 1960, followed by Emmerdale Farm on October 16, 1972. Both pulled in millions of ITV viewers from the very first. The BBC took another 13 years before EastEnders emerged.

There have been other attempts at the heady blend of rivalry, hatred, romance, secret relationships, long-lost children (or parents) and extramarital affairs, but Emmerdale, Corrie and EastEnders are still with us and each can pull in as many as five million viewers every night.

“It is great that we continue to showcase Yorkshire, it’s the essence of the county,” says Emmerdale’s executive producer, Jane Hudson. “The menu for a ‘soap’? It’s drama, humour, pathos, humour and romance. And I’m very proud indeed to be part of it all. But there is no room for complacencey in all this, as in any other job. We must change, we have to evolve,”

It cannot be easy for any of the main soaps to top what has gone before, so that audience interest, and loyalty, is maintained. Emmerdale is streets ahead, says Hudson, when it comes to “cat fights, explosions, car crashes, collapsing bridges, bodies buried in the woods, lightning strikes, robberies, floods, and planes falling out of the skies”.

The conundrum for those writers is therefore “what next?”, and their command from Hudson, as tomorrow’s 50th anniversary of Emmerdale approached, must have been: “Go on, top that!”

“This has all been 18 months in the planning,” she says. And, true to form, those writers have risen to her challenges. It is no secret that Emmerdale (most of the exteriors are now filmed on part of the Harewood Estate, in a specially constructed and 100 per cent lifelike set) will be buffeted by a storm “the like of which the village, nor its inhabitants, have witnessed before. There will be stunts to rock your world,” says Hudson. But it is the extent and the consequences of the damage, to both humans and to property, that is firmly under wraps.

There will be deaths, and serious injury. “No other soap could do all this,” says Hudson, “and that’s because of where we are. Out in the open, and far, far away from anyone one else”. Several industrial wind machines (normally the sort used by Hollywood blockbusters) have been hired to give veracity to the story, which will take place over three episodes including a Sunday for the first time, but which actually shows the events of just one horrendous night.

A lot of the damage will be caused by flying debris, and rumours too are flying about which of the cast will take their final bow by disappearing in Emmerdale’s frequently in-demand hearse, which has carried many a prominent Emmerdalian to their final resting place. In fact, that hearse was also seen in the very first screening of the then Emmerdale Farm, which is a strange kink of continuity. That time, it was the Sugden family who were the mourners – when long-lost son Jack Sugden put the cat among the pigeons at his father’s funeral. Since then there have been 74 weddings, 43 births and 105 deaths.

It will come as no surprise that the fictional village of Emmerdale does indeed have its own graveyard, part of the huge make-believe set. Some of the gravestones are completely genuine, rescued from redundant Yorkshire churchyards, and remembering real-life people, while others are triumphs of the scenery-makers’ inventive art, and are sacred to the memory of various Dingles and Tates and the like. They all lie at peace near St Mary’s Church.

Emmerdale was shot in the real village of Esholt for 22 years, but when filming intensified it moved to the purpose-built set in 1998. It took 20 weeks to build and the designers aged it quickly, spraying yoghurt and manure to encourage lichen to grow on the buildings and grinding down the stone to make it look weathered.

To balance the departures, there will also (Hudson promises) a return “of some very familiar faces”. There will be no ‘live’ episodes, airing in real time, because of the complexity of the story. “Viewers love live episodes,” laughs Hudson, “because they are all on the edge of their seats, waiting for something, anything, to go wrong. We are unique to Yorkshire but our stories transcend the boundaries. There is always potential for a good murder in Emmerdale – heaven knows, we’ve had enough of them. Who knows what may be lurking around the corner?” Apart from the Sugdens, Dingles and Tates, viewers across the decades will have seen the rise (and often demise) of the Glovers, the Maceys and the Whites – all of whom have (for now) left the scene. The Sharmas, the Spencers and the Windsor-Hopes, among many others, plough on.

It is the level of meticulous detail involved in the creation of Emmerdale that still impresses today. Not only is every character given a full “back-story” but it is consolidated with details such as whether or not they (for example) take milk in their coffee. Mark Charnock, who has played Marlon Dingle for a quarter of a century, observes “If they’re seen drinking a black coffee and viewers know that they loved it with a splash of cream, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone will spot it, and get in touch. What I really love, and very much appreciate, is the way that the production team and the writers will go the extra mile about giving us actors so much information if our plotlines require it. Marlon has recently been the centre of a story involving a stroke, and how it affected him and those around him. I discussed that all in the finest detail, so I could play the scenes with accuracy and honesty. That is just invaluable, and of course, as always, the viewers were also referred to stroke information sites and associated charities, which is a wonderful public service.”

Plots are filmed six weeks in advance so to keep the seasons in sync a full time gardener has the unusual job of moving the botanical clock forward by six weeks.

Lots of viewers don’t like change to their favourite soap, but change is part of life, both off and onscreen. Once that storm has settled, there is always Christmas in Emmerdale, and storylines for those celebrations, and into the New Year, have been in place since the end of June. “Be prepared for some fantastic family rows”, says Jane Hudson enigmatically. She smiles: “And what is the ‘festive season’ without a good bust-up? Or two?”

Emmerdale is aired weekdays on ITV with a special hour-long episode tomorrow.. 50 Years of Emmerdale: The official story of TV's most iconic rural drama, by Tom Parfitt, is published by Cassell and costs £20.