What a great week she has produced so far for Emmerdale. She is everything Kirkwood isn't. She knows exactly how to create slow building drama, allowing stories to naturally progress but keeping them interesting for the audience. She is also using the stunt to create maximum impact, making you actually care about the characters.

However, she is allowing the stories to be character driven rather than the plot dominating the characters. I'm sure she'll go onto great things when her stint on Emmerdale comes to an end .

It's almost certain she'll move on to Coronation Street, where I daresay she will rescue the show and rearchitect it to be back to its best. She is a thorough producer who will look at every character group, weave some decent stories together, retain hearty humour and true community and crucially also some really decent drama.

Well, there are some similarities. She's also had to bow to the pressure for sensational stunts, and sometimes that means the plots feel awkward and forced - you can almost hear the gears crunching, specially with this Ross/Debbie stuff. So her stuff isn't perfect. But she just does it better. Better storylines, and woven together more cleverly. Characters you actually care about. A decent cast, who aren't just cast for what they look like with their tops off.

I don't care how big Hollyoaks's stunts are now, because I don't give a single toss who dies. On Emmerdale, even though it's only fiction, I actually care. Quite a lot, in some cases. Which I think shows KO and her team are pretty good at what they do.

Emmerdale in the last two and a half years has produced some very classy, state of the art TV drama.

I'm a great believer in the soap genre being just as valid as any other genre of TV, but Emmerdale recently feels above and beyond what the 'traditional' soap would produce. It constantly feels very tight and slick as a production.

I'd be so excited to see Kate Oates go over to Coronation Street once her stint on Emmerdale is done. All kinds of magic would be in store.

Fabulous Producer miles ahead of Blackburn and Kirkwood

Gorgeous too. He isn't...

I have to agree, she might not be perfect (the post about Ross and Debbie feeling ridiculously forced is indeed true) but Kate Oates has proved that she knows the show, and she has done a sterling job at keeping it fresh and interesting whilst staying true to its roots.

I personally cannot watch the travesty that is Coronation St as it has been utterly decimated by Blackburn and his team. It's very HO like with its personality transplants and issue led storylines. Sarah Lou is an absolute shell of her former self, her backstory has been completely ignored and the character we see before us bears no resemblance whatsoever to the one we once knew and loved. Corrie has long forgotten its purpose and I find it sad that one man can disrespect something so dear to so many people and never be held accountable.

I have to disagree about Corrie, while yes Corrie isn't as exciting as Emmerdale it is still a good show and honestly up until last night I was enjoying Corrie much more than Emmerdale over the last month. I also everyone nit picks everything Blackburn does while Kate Oates gets passes for things she really shouldn't like throwing in the secret hookup between Charity and Ross to make him her baby daddy #3, the de-SORASing of the Barton Boys when Emma was brought in and lets not forget the pimping of Debbie/Ross as the new Cain and Charity. People would be calling for Blackburn's head on a platter if a threw in some random unseen hookup between two characters.

So would I. I don't watch Coronation Street.

It's not that difficult to believe that Charity and Ross could have slept together when they're not exactly morally perfect people and they've already slept together once before.

Lol lets all just calm down a bit! State of the art TV drama!?

But we didn't see it and Ross spent most of his time in the chop shop with Aaron and Charity was busy pining over Cain. Them hooking up made no sense and I'm telling you if Blackburn did the exact same thing on Corrie he'd be drug out to the street and shot.

Maybe not in terms of budget or aesthetic, but in terms of good storytelling and good acting it's fantastic... and those are the important things after all. 'State of the art' is just a figure of speech more than anything.

I'm not ashamed to say Kate Oates is a massive crush of mine

LOL slightly dramatic there Mark, Stuart Blackburn is well known for ruining everything he touches so this would be yet another misdeed on his part, adding to a long list of his previous.

Kate Oates is relatively new to the job and yes she has made some mistakes absolutely, but having Ross bang Charity off screen without us knowing about it is a fairly minor misdemanour compared to some of the rubbish SB has served up.

I love ED ; the only thing I'd mention personally , is that the storylines rattle along a little fast; just slow down a little and pace it a little better. That way there would be more impact.

Coronation street wants taking out and putting out of its misery humanely!

What exactly has he ruined? I enjoy Corrie and honestly don't get all the hate he gets. And as for Kate Oates while she doesn't have as much experience as Blackburn she has been SP of Emmerdale for 3 years now so she's no newbie. Plus the Ross/Charity thing was clearly a last minute write in, I think she could have done better than that.

Fantastic producer. I could probs only count maybe 2/3 things she has done I haven't been keen on but she has been a god send to Emmerdale. I think in many years to come, her stint will be looked back on as one of the show's greatest times in it's history.

Forget corrie. I think she would be better for Eastenders. Although EE is hardly in trouble, but DTC is a flawed and biased producer. Kate is not.

I respect your opinion and I'm glad you're enjoying corrie .

corrie has been a shadow of its former glorious self for me. Characters have been given personality transplants to fit the plot, shows should be character driven not plot driven in my view.

The humour is terrible and cringe and the writing is abysmal. Nothing makes any sense and it feels unnatural

Well I'm a newer viewer (3 years) but I've watched a lot of old Corrie on clips and Don't really see a difference with anything Blackburn has done. The only things I think he really messed up on where The Nazirs and Lloyd/Andrea. The only character transplant I see is Todd, which was Bruno Langley's idea not Blackburn's.

That's the whole point of who's the daddy storylines though... you're not supposed to see the mother sleeping with the father!

I've watched for nye on 20 years now and believe me I want to cry when I compare it the Richard hillman years.

Bear in mind I was only 12 when I started watching

Kate Oates is on Good Morning Britain tomorrow.

i second this and whilst I also respect your opinion Mark, If you have genuinely enjoyed CS more than ED lately then I guess we have different preferences and expectations of our soaps.

As Sorcha has said, Corrie is a shadow of its former self. Great characters like Gail have been totally destroyed. This simpering and pathetic excuse for a character we see today was once a strong, and feisty young matriarch, flawed yes, but ultimately a good person who made some poor choices. The ruination of Sarah Lou, is an ongoing bugbear. This girl has been gone for 8 years and returned as a caricature with no development or explanation as to why she is now a terrible mother, and morally corrupt, backstabbing bitch. The DIRE racism storyline with tiny fireman.The introduction of Michael. The Gandy fraud storyline which lasted for 5000 years. The Nazirs. The God Awful Peter and Tina partnership......I could go on. There is so much I hate about the reign of SB and I genuinely feel he has taken my favourite soap and ripped it to shreds to fit his own agenda.

Thank God Emmerdale stepped up and filled the breach. I genuinely believe it is the best soap at the moment. Though I don't expect everyone else to feel the same.