Good evening all,

I only started watching Emmerdale while looking after my late mother a few years ago.
Can somebody explain to me the connection between the new (to me) characters and their relationship to Andy, Victoria and Dianne etc?
Many thanks in advance

Right. Robert Sugden is Jack and Pat Sugden's son - his mother died when he was a baby. Jack then married Sarah and they adopted Andy who was a friend of Robert's from school when they discovered he was abused and then abandoned. Later on, in an insurance fraud, Andy set fire to their barn, accidentally killing Sarah who had also by that time given birth to a daughter, Victoria. Jack later on went on to marry Diane and then subsequently died himself.

Robert held a grudge against Andy for Sarah's death and various other things. He was also attracted too Katie who was Andy's teenage girlfriend so set out to take her from Andy. The 2 had an affair both before and after Katie married Andy. When Andy found out, he tried to shoot Robert but got Jack instead. Katie left Andy for Robert but they split up sometime later.

Robert also seduced Debbit with the intention of getting her to take baby Sarah away from the village to hurt Andy. When that went wrong he fled but was involved in a bad road accident which killed Max King, Jimmy's youngest brother. The only time he has been seen since was at his father's funeral.

So, Diane is Roberts stepmother, Victoria his half sister, Andy his adoptive brother and Katie his ex sister in law and lover.

There was a lot more to it than that but that's all you really need to know right noe.

And Robert has had a head transplant. 😄

Robert is Jack Sugden's biological son - Andy was adopted.
Robert and Andy were schoolfriends and Andy lived with his granny, his father (now dead ?) was in prison. When she died Jack and Sarah fostered him, and from that point Robert resented Andy.
Katie was also in their school. Andy started going out with her and then at some point she had an affair with Robert. She married Andy but carried on the affair afterwards. Andy found out and lay in wait for Robert intending to shoot him, but mistakenly shot Jack. (not fatally)
After that Robert drove his car at Andy's Landrover and crashed into it. It went on fire and the passenger, Max King (Jimmy's brother) was killed.
Jack gave Robert his share of Andy, Robert and Victoria's inheritance to leave the village. He returned once, for Jack's funeral, but kept out of sight.

If I've got any of that wrong I'm sure someone will say.

His third.
There have been four Roberts.

Blimey! It's hard to keep up!

Robert must be next on Katie's list. He came after Andy when she first worked her way through the village.

Robert is already at the top of Katie's list of conquests, while she was married to his brother Andy. Classy, I know.

The slut shaming of the women folk of Emmerdale continues. Robert telling Andy to watch out for whose bed Katy might end up in and the cheek of him saying Katy was only to willing er what about himself

I'm looking forward to seeing Lawrence put the awful Robert in his place

Yes that was pretty bad. Katie has been round the block something chronic but Robert was the first 'affair', she was very young and he chased her.

I think they are doing it to show that he is a very nasty piece of work though and only saying it to wind Andy up.

Andy was introduced in 1996 via a school field trip type thing. He only started at Hotten Comprehensive once Jack and Sarah started fostering him.

The boys were great friends until 2001 when Andy confessed to bring responsible for Sarah's death the previous year. The next day (I think) Robert went to visit his Grandma Annie Sugden in Spain and returned with a new head (Victoria suffered the same fate five years later - there's something in the water over there! )

Andy's father Billy Hopwood was responsible for the death of Donna's father Vic Windsor during a robbery-gone-wrong (this makes her dodgy dealings in the last months of her life odd to say the least). When released from prison he had an affair with Diane and then left never to be seen or even mentioned again (not even when they were looking for donors for Sarah!) It was at this time (Emmerdale's 35th birthday) that Victoria discovered the truth about her mother's death.

It's also worth mentioning that Robert lost his virginity to Nicola!

Ooh, I'm getting flashbacks of Victoria starting the fire at wherever the Sugdens lived at the time after learning how her mother died coming back to me from reading this. How time flies! I also remember Billy saving Victoria from drowning after their car accident and how it lead to her having a phobia of water, which has long since been forgotten.

Brilliant synopsis

Eek - I'd forgotten about Nicola and Robert. I remembered he ha a fling with Sadie. Jimmy shouldn't like him very much after him having bedded both his wives and accidentally killed his youngest brother - the one he always seemed most protective of (I remember his talking about how he used to cuddle him when he was a baby) even though he clearly also loved Matthew and Carl.

Did Robert ever have a go on Charity? I don't think he did - she was tied up with the Tates, then Kings and then had her sabbatical.

Thank you. Pat's death is actually when I started watching full time. I'd only been an intermiTtant viewer up until then - partly because of being very young, the time slot and not having a video recorder until the mid 80s.

[quote=trevor tiger;75323111]The slut shaming of the women folk of Emmerdale continues. Robert telling Andy to watch out for whose bed Katy might end up in and the cheek of him saying Katy was only to willing er what about himself

I'm looking forward to seeing Lawrence put the awful Robert in his place [/QUOTE]

Katie, in particular, is routinely ridiculed over her sex life.Everyone, from Betty to Victoria, has had a pop. But to be fair to the writers, they wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't use the slurs in the scripts
They set Katie up as a 'man eater' in a small village. They cannot shy away from that.

It's only a soap character at the end of the day, and not to be taken at all seriously.

I'm getting really sick of the slut shaming of the women in ED too, especially when Katie and the other female characters have had as many relationships/affairs as Andy and every other male character.

The double standards and internalised misogyny in real life won't ever stop if soaps/tv and other media that's consumed by all still demonizes women for their sex life whilst nothing is said about the men who do the same.

I liked Kate Oates' work before but the sexism and misogyny in the show has definitely increased under her. It would be fine if it was shown as unacceptable but it's portrayed as more than acceptable.

I don't think so. That seems to sum up her conquests pretty well (apart from Cain of course)!


Yes, very comprehensive, although...


strictly speaking bold 2 ought to have gone just before bold 1!


Yes, that was the home Robert was looking at early in the episode(though of course he'd left two years prior to the fire). Ali and Ruby live there now.

I think Victoria got over her water phobia while holidaying in France with Diane and Charlie. We certainly saw her in her swimming costume and I think reference was made to the phobia then.

Andy used to have a fear of fire too - he was completely immobile when Laurel's dress set fire at the bonfire. Yet he seemed OK at the post office fire and when Kerry set his own home on fire!

Talking of Robert and Jimmy, and fires - they and Cain set fire to one of Andy's barns once. All three of them bedded Sadie too!

Well, Tates (Chris and zoe), kings (Tom and Jimmy) and Dingles (Cain and Marlon) during her first stint!

Indeed. Sarah had this whole independent, refusing to become a little woman at home thing going on so refused to marry even when she fell pregnant. Then she changed heads and lost most of her character!

You'd think Victoria's water phobia might have come back when she fell through the ice wouldn't you.

I wonder if they'll reference that horrible dummy she had to use after Robert frightened her into becoming mute for a few weeks?!

It's pretty rampant on here too. How many posts about Katie don't revolve around calling her a slut in some form? Not many. Do you think the posts about Robert who slept with quite a few women himself and cheated on Donna and Katie will be about his sex life? I doubt it.

Can't help but agree however there is at the least a 2 way debate on here but on Emmerdale it all seems one way. Why did all the protagonists accept what Robert said Why was there only a threat of violence to protect Katie's honour 'roll eyes' and no verbal assault IE telling Robert he's just as much a 'slut' as he is suggesting Katie is

From memory, as somebody else said, Robert was fine with Andy at first - he even encouraged Sarah and Jack to take him in. It was only when he discovered that Andy was responsible for the fire that killed Sarah and therefore Jack's subsequent imprisonment (he was falsely accused of arson and didn't defend himself as he wanted to protect Andy) that he grew resentful and in some ways you can understand it. I mean he loses his second mother that has brought him uop and his Dad seems to indicate that he prefers Andy to him by placing his liberty above staying with Robert and Victoria.

But, he took his revenge way too far in various different ways.

All the characters have been conditioned to believe women are slappers. I'm surprised Cain didn't show up just to point and proclaim "SLAG!".

I wonder how Jimmy will react, it wouldn't surprise me if the writers forgot.

I would have much preferred Katie and Andy calling him out on his 'slutty' ways instead of Andy punching him. Robert would have probably been put in his place more by Andy revealing his scummy, dirty past.

I don't know why Robert's fiancee would want to marry him when she saw how he treated one of his exes. If he has so much vitriol for a girl he dated as a teenager what makes her think she'll get treated or thought of any differently from Katie if they ever split up?

Ha! I wouldn't be surprised either. Ross would probably be right there with Cain calling Katie or any other woman a 'slag' or 'slapper' for deigning to have a sex life.