A Decade Down on the Farm

A Decade Down on the Farm was a 30-minute celebration of the first ten years of the serial and was transmitted on 18th October 1982, two days after the programme's tenth birthday.
The show was presented by Richard Whiteley and based around the six original cast members who were still with the show at the time and had been since the first episode.The special began with a montage of members of the public speaking briefly about their love or hate for the show and also featured behind the scenes footage of the filming of an episode in the village of Esholt.
Richard opened the show by speaking to creator and writer Kevin Laffan about the thesis behind the programme and how it differed from the radio serial The Archers.
Then turning to the cast for insight, Sheila Mercier spoke about life in the farmhouse kitchen and the difficulty of playing emotional scenes, speaking specifically about the episodes surrounding Sam and Sally Skilbeck's deaths and how she herself cried for a fortnight over the storyline. Frazer Hines recalled Joe Sugden's marriage to Christine Sharp and his worry that he'd lose a lot of his fan following due to being married off in the programme, adding that this didn't actually happen as the majority of girls who would write to him didn't like the character of Christine and wrote trying to get him to split from her. He also spoke about the progression in Joe's character from the first episode working as a farm labourer in contrast to him now working further up the chain at NY Estates.
 
Frederick Pyne recalled his involvement in the Fell Rescue Association, explaining that one scene he did involving him climbing into water left him surprised when he thought the wet suit he had been given was waterproof. Frederick also commented on his character's dour side, explaining that Matt was quite a non-cheerful character, mainly due to his family members regularly being killed off and how he doesn't get much chance to smile in the show. Toke Townley recalled working with popular comedian Max Wall and how in one scene they both forgot their lines and just kept improvising with the take, following this brief clips of the outtakes were shown.
Arthur Pentelow noted how Henry's life had changed since his arrival in the village and his relationship with Amos. He commented on the beer in The Woolpack actually being real but the whiskey being fake but recalled the scene where Amos and Henry were locked in the pub cellar in 1978 following Steve Hawker and Pip Coulter's robbery and noted that the director actually surprised them by providing real whiskey to sip. Ronald Magill commented on his inability to ride a bicycle and recalled a scene where Amos fell off his bike and into a wall being filmed the day after a cast party when everybody was hungover.
The special came to an end following more words from Kevin Laffan, who commented on the social changes since the show began in 1972 and why it has proved to be so popular. He ended by noting that as long as life carried on, there would be stories for a serial such as Emmerdale Farm.
Various clips from the show's history played throughout the programme, usually brief moments from a scene that each individual member of the cast was talking about.
The programme was released on the Emmerdale Specials Scandinavian DVD boxset in 2008 in a cropped widescreen aspect ratio.
Category:Programmes about Emmerdale