Classic Emmerdale

I don't watch Emmerdale - do they ever cover genuine rural issues such as shops and post offices closing, cancellation of bus services, crap broadband etc?

The last time I saw it Emmerdale was the most prosperous village in the country with a beautifully looking well patronised pub, a sweet factory, a farm, a sports pavilion, a shop (including post office and cafe), a garage, a B&B, a vets and a deli/farm shop.

In just about every other outdoor scene there was a bus dropping multiple people (presumably customers of one of the many thriving local, independent businesses) off.

Sounds like a great place to live (and work, since the villagers are mostly all fortunate enough to be employed within walking distance of their homes) if you can put up with the death, destruction, sieges, shootings, multi-car pile ups, freak-of-nature storms and aircraft incidents that is.

They used to, and in Episode 3 there is, infact, a very long discussion about the bus services.

Then they dropped a plane and had an armed hostage within 6 months of one another and it all changed.

Also mentioned in the plane crash episodes was the remoteness of the village - Jack and Frank had to conduct makeshift repairs to a demolished Skipdale Bridge in order for the Emergency Services to access the village quickly (they would have had to take "a 45 minute diversion" to reach Beckindale otherwise.)

When you look at the village in the early episodes and then compare it with today, it appears it has significantly grown in size and population! When filming moved to Esholt in 1976, the storyline explained this by saying the Woolpack had moved to a different part of Beckindale, not previously seen on screen. Although frequently mentioned, I don’t think we have ever seen the Malt Shovel or the part of the village where it is meant to be. I may be wrong.

Well most villages probably have anyway.

I watched avidly for a good decade between 1993-2003 and the Malt Shovel wasn't seen on-screen at any point.

I do remember we had about five or six weeks of no external scenes during the switch from Esholt to Harewood.

I went round the studios (then at 3 Mills) in 1994, which was really good fun. We were only allowed to go onto the Woolpack set though. They'd moved there from Kirkstall Road in 1989, but moved back to a dedicated complex behind YTV in 1998. Originally they had "studio weeks" and "location weeks", the latter of which allowed YTV to use the studios for other productions - so the sets had to be set up and struck constantly.

I believe since the switch to HD they're back in the main YTV building?

In real life The Woolpack would have been converted to a Tesco Express by now.

And the post office merged into to along with cafe.

It has appeared on screen apparently. A number of storylines involved characters falling out with the landlord in The Woolpack and transferring their loyalties to the rival pub.

http://emmerdalepastpresent.wikia.com/wiki/The_Malt_Shovel

There have also been a number of plots involving competitions between the 2 pubs such as cricket matches & tug of wars. The landlord of the Malt Shovel (Ernie Shuttleworth) apparently appeared in 40 episodes.

In a small village in the middle of nowhere? Not very likely...

More likely than a thriving pub!

Ah yes, I remember the 1995 Boxing Day episode, but set on Christmas Day, (an early incidence of a one hour special) featuring a Tug Of War between the two pubs. Hunter from Gladiators played himself as a guest star.