Emmerdale

Cant see an Emmerdale thread discussing current episodes and developments so thought id start one here rather than keep posting in the ITV thread.

Last nights episode seemed rather rushed to me, I have lost track where we should be up to if following the normal pattern of scheduling but last nights episode I believe should have been the first episode of a Tuesday or Thursday double. If that is the case it seemed like they crammed the entire double episode into 1 single episode, possibly as we are into the last week of what was filmed before filming was suspended. The first part seemed a lot longer and led to what was I guess the cliff hanger of the Belle and Jamie reveal.

Looking forward to these lockdown episodes next week and seeing exactly how they work and how they manage any storylines that are left at the end of Fridays episode. Its mainly Mandy and Vinny and Jamie/Andrea/Belle storylines that are running at the moment. Plus the stuff with DI Malone which seems to have ground to a halt at the moment.

As we're towards the end of filmed episodes I suspect they may not have been completed so they've used the scenes they have recorded to make them, so it may have been a double episode using scenes they've filmed for that, with the scenes they haven't removed.


As I've said before I really do think the lockdown episodes are the best way for a soap to acknowledge it. Let's the viewers know it has happened in their world and bridges that gap between old and new episodes nicely rather than just picking up and either pretending nothing has happened or now living in a world with Coronavirus and Social Distancing but just having it change from one episode to the next.

A few weeks ago a Friday and Monday episode was put together due to a similar problem of not all scenes being completed. It goes to show how much is filmed out of sequence and I guess with the village being some distance from the studios (not like Corrie where its all on one site) that can lead to more filming out of sequence at Emmerdale.

I think a good plan would be for time to have moved forward by the time we reach the lockdown episodes as realistically lockdown wouldn't have happened over night even in the soap world, and viewers should be able to draw their own conclusions to how some storylines have moved on if the writing is good. It will be interesting to see how long the soaps reference covid 19 as its going to be around in the real world for a long time to come. Realistically in the soap world pubs could be closed for a long time and even when they do open its going to be very different. That would need to be reflected in the soap world.

True. The Woolpack set, along with the Rovers Return and Queen Vic in the other soaps, will have to be mothballed, as they can't film in them until the pubs reopen in real life.

They could be used if they reflect the reality for those who own those pubs and their lives under lockdown, and tell their stories.

One aspect that people often ignore when thinking about soap production is efficiency of cast use. They will often shoot out of sequence to maximise the work that cast members will do in a day - so they aren't called in just to record one three minute scene for a single episode. If there are a run of scenes involving the cast members across a couple of episodes they will shoot those in a block (with costume changes between each scene) on the same day too. Particularly if they are location shoots.

It'll never happen but it would be good for a high profile soap business to actually close as a result and follow that lead. Someone like David who has family responsibilities losing his own shop and then facing unemployment (not being hired by the Woolpack half an hour later) would be a pretty decent story. That said around here I think the local shops who've stayed open have probably had their best trading period of recent years.

Hopefully Corrie, with more episodes in the can, won't have to do this thing Emmerdale's had to do of slapping together a load of completed scenes together even if it feels disjointed because of scenes that hadn't been filmed, presmably they'll have the time to record any missing scenes before they go to air.

That's true although sometimes it can take ages to film one or two short scenes and I cast member can be in for a half day or whole day just to do a bit of filming. They also have to work around holidays for the cast as well.

Tonight's Emmerdale was the last episode completed before lockdown. It ended on a cliff hanger with Andrea's disappearance. ITV have announced that when the proper episodes of Emmerdale resume on 29th June it will carry on where it left off with some scenes filmed before lockdown and some after filming resumed with social distance in place. It will be interesting to see.

The lockdown episodes we will get for the next 3 weeks on Mon and Wed only will be very much stand alone, kind of a spin off from the normal episodes. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

We'll see hair growing and shrinking between scenes supposedly taking place on the same day in those episodes probably!

Big hats will suddenly be all the rage in Emmerdale.