Emmerdale in 1990

1990 was Emmerdale's 19th year. production was overseen by producer Stuart Doughty.
102 episodes were broadcast during the year. Storylines included David Hughes' attempts to split up Kate and Joe Sugden, Elsa Feldmann falling pregnant by boyfriend Nick Bates, Pete Whiteley's hit and run death, the beginnings of Chris Tate and Kathy Merrick's relationship and Amos Brearly's stroke.
==Production==
The first official fan club for a soap launched on 15th January as founder Jenny Godfrey launched The Emmerdale Club after a year and a half of preparations. The launch event was held at London Zoo and Ronald Magill, Arthur Pentelow, Stan Richards, Cy Chadwick, Glenda McKay and producer Stuart Doughty were all there to take part in the occasion. The launch was responsible for press hearing that Ronald Magill had handed in his notice, deciding to retire from the character of Amos Brearly and return to the theatre. On-screen business partner, Arthur Pentelow, would note his sadness to see Ronald leave but assured viewers he had no plans to give up the role of Henry Wilks. Amos' exit was filmed in November but not transmitted until January 1991.
Fionnuala Ellwood had decided to leave the programme to pursue other projects and writers were forced to come up with a way to write Lynn Whiteley out of the village. Deciding the most realistic option would be to have Lynn leave with Pete, Jim Millea was informed that he too would be written out of the programme. Both left in January, following the reveal of Pete's affair with Rachel Hughes, but would pop up again separately before the year was out in the dramatic hit and run storyline which killed off Pete.
Sally Knyvette suffered a miscarriage early on in the year and later had to relive the ordeal as Kate Sugden lost her baby onscreen. As a result of the drunk driving hit and run story, Sally also bowed out of the programme with numerous press reports announcing that the actress had quit following a disagreement with the producer or referring to her recent miscarriage as the reason for her departure. Sally had however been considering leaving the previous Christmas but had decided to stick around for an extra year, always intending to leave before becoming typecast.
In other departures for the year, Drew Dawson would appear in his last episode as Jock MacDonald after nine years and Teddy Turner would make his final appearance as Bill Whiteley before being killed off off-screen the following year.
On 29th June, Emmerdale celebrated its first full year of production at Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley with a party. 250 guests, consisting of cast members both past and present, attended the evening. Series creator Kevin Laffan was also in attendance. Not content with just one big party, an event took place at the Cafe Royal in London on 11th October to celebrate the show finally coming of age and turning 18. Cast members in attendance included Sheila Mercier, Arthur Pentelow, Clive Hornby, Jean Rogers, Diana Davies, Malandra Burrows, Chris Chittell, Madeleine Howard, Glenda McKay, Craig McKay, Peter Amory and Stephen Rashbrook. Crew members Keith Richardson, Stuart Doughty and Tim Fee were also in attendance.
Tony Pitts returned to the serial in June as Archie Brooks returned to the village following a small break. Diana Davies also reprised her role as Caroline Bates and would appear as a recurring character for a number of years. New additions to the cast included the arrival of the Feldmann family who were meant to have resided in the village already for 26 years and new curate Tony Charlton portrayed by Stephen Rashbrook. David Fleeshman would also return to the programme as new character Charlie Aindow.
 Malandra Burrows also released a single at Stuart Doughty's request - 'Just This Side of Love' - which had been performed by Kathy Merrick at the Village Hall talent competition in Episode 1507. The single was released on 7" vinyl and cassette on 26th November and peaked at #11 in the Official UK Chart on 22nd December. The achievement gave Malandra the chance to accomplish the dream of performing on Top of the Pops with the track.
==Episodes==
==Main Cast==
Ranking	Character 	Played by 	Duration 	Number of Episodes	Running total	Previous year's ranking
1 	Henry Wilks 	Arthur Pentelow 	Full year 	97 	1439 	6
2 	Amos Brearly 	Ronald Magill 	Full year 	96 	1456 	1
3 	Jack Sugden 	Clive Hornby 	Full year 	91 	931 	25
4 	Joe Sugden 	Frazer Hines 	Full year 	87 	1224 	3
5 	Alan Turner 	Richard Thorp 	Full year 	86 	753 	5
5 	Kathy Merrick 	Malandra Burrows 	Full year 	86 	459 	10
7 	Nick Bates 	Cy Chadwick 	Full year 	85 	341 	16
7 	Seth Armstrong 	Stan Richards 	Full year 	85 	888 	8
9 	Annie Sugden 	Sheila Mercier 	Full year 	84 	1411 	1
10 	Rachel Hughes 	Glenda McKay 	Full year 	82 	193 	11
11 	Dolly Skilbeck 	Jean Rogers 	Full year 	80 	1060 	12
11 	Frank Tate 	Norman Bowler 	Full year 	80 	90 	30
13 	Christopher Tate 	Peter Amory 	Full year 	79 	86 	31
14 	Kim Tate 	Claire King 	Full year 	78 	82 	33
15 	Sarah Connolly 	Madeleine Howard 	Full year 	76 	101 	27
16 	Kate Sugden 	Sally Knyvette 	Until October 	73 	210 	3
17 	Mark Hughes 	Craig McKay 	Full year 	69 	160 	14
18 	Elsa Feldmann 	Naomi Lewis 	February to August, and from October 	63 	63 	N/A
19 	Zoe Tate 	Leah Bracknell 	Full year 	61 	65 	33
20 	Samuel Skilbeck 	Benjamin Whitehead 	January to February, June to November 	38 	TBA 	29
21 	Archie Brooks 	Tony Pitts 	June to August, and from October 	36 	367 	14
22 	Michael Feldmann 	Matthew Vaughan 	From February 	35 	35 	N/A
23 	Elizabeth Feldmann	Kate Dove 	March, from May 	34 	34 	N/A
24 	Jock MacDonald 	Drew Dawson 	February, April to September 	31 	261 	26
25 	Eric Pollard 	Christopher Chittell	Unitl May, and from July 	30 	195 	19
26 	Bill Middleton 	Johnny Caesar 	January to February, April to May, August to November	26 	207 	23
26 	Robert Sugden 	Christopher Smith 	January to April, July and from September 	26 	161 	31
28 	Tony Charlton 	Stephen Rashbrook 	From August 	24 	24 	N/A
29 	David Hughes 	Martyn Whitby 	January to April and November 	23 	52 	24
30 	Bill Whiteley 	Teddy Turner 	January to February, April to September 	22 	67 	21
31 	Charlie Aindow 	David Fleeshman 	August to November 	19 	19 	N/A
32 	Caroline Bates 	Diana Davies 	August to September 	11 	538 	10
33 	Pete Whiteley 	Jim Millea 	January and August 	10 	77 	13
34 	Lynn Whiteley 	Fionnuala Ellwood 	Until February, and October 	8 	72 	17
35 	Peter Whiteley 	Sam Walker 	October only 	3 	3 	N/A
==Storylines==
===January===
*Joe Sugden continued to be wound up by David Hughes and Kate Sugden spending so much time together. David enjoyed winding Joe up and took every opportunity he could to cause friction between the pair. At a New Year's Eve party, David maliciously let all Joe's sheep out, forcing Joe to be late for the party. When he arrived at the stroke of midnight, he was angered to find Kate and David kissing. The couple argued the following day and when Kate learned that David had let the sheep out, causing Joe to be late, she agreed to cut contact with him. Joe and Kate decided to prove their strength by becoming partners in Emmerdale Farm as Matt Skilbeck's share were signed over to Kate. Kate later retaliated by announcing to Joe that she was pregnant and the pair went away for a second honeymoon.
*Sarah Connolly continued to refuse to move in with Jack Sugden at the Emmerdale cottage. She soon changed her mind however when Jack drew up a contract outlining terms and conditions to ensure they would not end up under each other's thumb and could continue to live their own lives. One of Sarah's conditions meant nailing up the adjoining door to the farmhouse, preventing Annie Sugden from walking through whenever she chose.
*Kim Tate asked Dolly Skilbeck to start as housekeeper at Home Farm and also wanted her to live-in with Sam. Dolly refused, insisting she was quite happy at The Mill. Annie frequently found herself having Sam dropped on her while Dolly was at work and began to wonder whether Dolly's new job was causing havoc for Sam.
*Preparations continued for the village new year production of Amos Brearly's Dracula. When the show made the stage, Amos was furious when, after a few disasters on stage, the Hotten Courier dubbed the play as a hilarious "pantomime" despite him having penned the production as a tragedy.
*Zoe Tate began interviewing local farmers on chlamydia psittaci for research on a project she was studying at university whilst studying to be a vet. She was less than pleased by the enthusiasm of the local farmers however but was grateful when Kathy Merrick agreed to speak to her about her experience. When Seth Armstrong fell ill, Zoe carried tests out on the water at the Fish & Game Farm and suspects Cryptosporidium.
*Lynn Whiteley learned that Pete Whiteley had lied about who he was with on the night Jackie Merrick died and realised that Pete must have been having an affair. She soon worked out it was with Rachel Hughes.
*Nick Bates attended an interview for a gardening position at Home Farm and was thrilled when Frank Tate offered him the job, despite bluffing his way through the entire interview. After an accident with weed killer, Nick discovers he has killed all of Frank's koi carp.
*Chris Tate convinced Kathy Merrick to drink with him and was delighted when she agreed to go on a proper date with him but she later stands him up.
*Frank Tate refused to renew Kathy Merrick's lease on her farming venture.
===February===
to be added
==Who lives where==
Main Street
*The Woolpack: Amos Brearly. Henry Wilks.
*The Mill: Dolly and Samuel Skilbeck (until May).
*Victoria Cottage: Alan Turner.
Demdyke Row
*3 Demdyke Row: Kathy Merrick (until May). Nick Bates (until August and from October). Archie Brooks (June to August). Elsa Feldmann (from October). Elizabeth and Michael Feldmann (from December).
*6 Demdyke Row: Seth and Meg Armstrong.
Connelton Lane
*Home Farm: Frank, Kim and Zoe Tate. Chris Tate and Kathy Merrick (from May). Dolly and Sam Skilbeck (from May).
Others
*Emmerdale Farm: 
**Farmhouse: Annie and Joe Sugden. Kate Sugden (until October). Mark and Rachel Hughes.
**Cottage: Jack and Robert Sugden. Sarah Connolly (from January)
*Whiteley's Farm: Bill Whiteley. Pete and Lynn Whiteley (until February). Archie Brooks (from August).
*Blackthorn Farm: Elizabeth and Michael Feldmann (until December). Elsa Feldmann (until October). Nick Bates (August to October).
*Unknown flat in Skipdale: Chris Tate (until May).
==Who works where==
*The Woolpack: Amos Brearly. Henry Wilks. Sarah Connolly (from July).
*Fish & Game Farm: Alan Turner. Seth Armstrong. David Hughes (until April). Elsa Feldmann (from February) Jock MacDonald (June to August).
*Emmerdale Farm: Joe and Jack Sugden. Kate Sugden (until October). Kathy Merrick (until October). Sarah Connolly (from August).
*Blackthorn Farm: Elizabeth and Michael Feldmann.
*Home Farm: Dolly Skilbeck (from January). Nick Bates (from January). Jock MacDonald (May and September only). Kathy Merrick (from October).
*Frank Tate & Son Haulage Contractor: Frank and Chris Tate. George Starkey (until February). Rachel Hughes (from August).
*Bennetts Veterinary Practice: Zoe Tate (from August).
*Mobile Library: Sarah Connolly (until June).
==Awards and Nominations==
to be added
Category:1990
Category:Emmerdale year-by-year