Emmerdale Farm in 1983

1983 was Emmerdale Farm's 12th year. Storylines included Sandie Merrick's pregnancy and Joe Sugden's affair with Barbara Peters and his departure for France. 72 episodes were broadcast this year.
==Production==
Anne W. Gibbons continued work as producer for the majority of the year, but handed over to Richard Handford from Episode 819 on 4th October. Around the same time, Frazer Hines left the series as Joe Sugden moved to France. Onscreen, Joe's relationship with Barbara Peters also ended and she left the village as Rosie Kerslake departed. Jane Hutcheson took a break as Sandie Merrick for the remainder of the year, leaving in February as Sandie went to stay with Tom Merrick in Aberdeen.
Elsewhere, George Little reappeared as Edward Ruskin, last seen in 1974, for a small storyline in May and, in November, Tony Pitts joined the cast as Archie Brooks, shortly after being turned down for the part of Terry Duckworth in Coronation Street. Beverley Callard passed through the village this year in a supporting role, playing Angie Richards, a love interest for Jackie Merrick.
One tabloid newspaper publicly revealed the previously 'secret' location of Esholt being used for exterior scenes since 1976. A story was printed about residents from the "tiny Yorkshire village of Esholt, near Bradford" being angered over an increase in tourists after coach operators discovered the location of filming. The report went on to say that some tourists had been trespassing on private land in an attempt to catch glimpses of the cast. Yorkshire Television were still under contract not to name the village however and only provided comment to say that they had never done-so, so it was up to members of the public to find out if the newspapers reports were true.
In other goings on, Al Dixon's portrayal of silent Woolpack customer Walter made the tabloids as fans set up a petition for Yorkshire Television to give Walter lines of dialogue. The petition was to no avail however and Walter remained onscreen and silent.
Viewing figures also made the headlines this year as the programme creeped into ITV's Top 10 chart a total of eight times. At one point even rising to number five and prompting a newspaper to declare that the programme was now rivaling Crossroads, though in the long-term that wasn't strictly the case. Cast and crew reportedly believed that should Thames Television grant them a prime time slot, they would seriously start being able to challenge the other serials, but Thames made no change to its schedule.
The programme's summer break once again saw it disappear from schedules for July and August.
==Episodes==
==Main Cast==
Ranking	Character 	Played by 	Duration 	Number of Episodes	Running total	Previous year's ranking
1 	Matt Skilbeck 	Frederick Pyne 	Full year 	72 	804 	1
1 	Seth Armstrong	Stan Richards 	Full year 	72 	268 	7
1 	Pat Sugden 	Helen Weir 	Full year 	72 	241 	1
4 	Amos Brearly 	Ronald Magill 	Full year 	71 	800 	7
4 	Jackie Merrick	Ian Sharrock 	Full year 	71 	217 	1
6 	Dolly Skilbeck	Jean Rogers 	Full year 	70 	431 	7
6 	Jack Sugden 	Clive Hornby 	Full year 	70 	384 	1
6 	Henry Wilks 	Arthur Pentelow	Full year 	70 	804 	1
9 	Alan Turner 	Richard Thorp 	Full year 	69 	117 	14
10 	Donald Hinton 	Hugh Manning 	Full year 	67 	317 	11
11 	Annie Sugden 	Sheila Mercier 	Full year except March 	61 	773 	12
12 	Sam Pearson 	Toke Townley 	Full year except March 	57 	727 	13
13 	Barbara Peters	Rosie Kerslake 	Until October 	52 	56 	16
14 	Joe Sugden 	Frazer Hines 	Until October 	38 	758 	6
15 	Jock MacDonald	Drew Dawson 	February to March, October and December	18 	20 	-
16 	Sandie Merrick	Jane Hutcheson 	Until February 	11 	155 	10
17 	Archie Brooks 	Tony Pitts 	From November 	8 	8 	-
18 	Edward Ruskin 	George Little 	May only 	3 	101 	-
==Storylines==
to be added
==Who lives where==
to be added
==Awards and Nominations==
to be added
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Category:1983
Category:Emmerdale year-by-year