im a long time fan of this gentle, rather tongue in cheek rural romp. ive stuck with emmerdale through the poorer times because when its good - its great! i stopped watching eastenders and corrie when their storylines got too daft, too gloomy, and the characters rather unlikable.

sorry to say emmerdale is going the same way. the storylines are one big "ho !" (pulling a mun for those who get the reference) . the rakesh/chrissy storyline is utterly stupid... its an insult to our intelligence, and the belle being nuts storyline is almost as daft. sick of it...

but the worst thing, by far, is the way ian mac cleod has done a 'stuart blackburn' after kate oats repaired the chaos he inflicted on the characters... hes gone and destroyed every relationship.

theres nothing wrong with having strong characters in long term relationships, or are the writers really that lazy/untalented that they cannot come up with interesting warm storylines? why the hell is this soap now all about musical chairs with the characters partners?.. its sickening, they arent even together long enough for us to build up a relationship with them.

emmerdales usp was that its set in a rural location, with characters that depicted rural life. ffs can we have some strong families back, ones that pull together despite infighting. what made 'dallas' interesting was the strength of the two waring families. emmerdale doesnt do families or lasting relationships but its become a programme of individuals.

something better change, because anyone dipping into it now wouldnt be back for more and its going to lose long time viewers too.

TBH I think with the exception of Doctors

The 3 main soaps have become Crossroads/Dallas type shows

Remember them?

It fills the schdules with cheap quality & people watch out of habit rather than for entertainment

frankly i would put crossroads in the same league as dallas... dallas was cleverly written, it had continuity , and some great actors that made the characters their own.

im currently watching my dallas box set again... even though i know broadly what happens i still get entertained by the storylines and quality of acting. (from one or two characters anyway... hagman/grey/kercheval )

Life isn't complicated, if you don't like something don't watch it, its as simple as that.

Rural farming is very rarely seen

I wouldn't say it was unwatchable. It's very switch-offable though, which is a bit dangerous for a soap.

It's not total garbage like Hollyoaks was after 2013. The cast is still good, but the storylines are daft and the characters are written as shallow as a puddle.

They really need some stronger storyliners, who understand character, and whose imaginations stretch beyond "X and Y have a shag."

bib - Sorry, but I stopped reading at this point.

While I don't think Emmerdale is THAT bad just yet, it's certainly better than Corrie, with its boring storylines and seriously unlikable characters that just grate on me. Emmerdale is doing ok. Belle annoys me, but her mental issues can happen anyone, so it's a believable plot.
I do agree about the long term relationships breaking up. Obviously Rakesh and Priya won't last, and there's is also a feeling that Jimmy and Nicola, and Dan and Kerry won't last either. I really hope that they don't go down the Nicola and Dan affair route, I think that will make me stop watching. I prefer both characters with their respective partners, plus the Kings will be a strong family when the 3 kids grow up, so we need Jimmy and Nicola to stay together. But apart from that, Emmerdale isn't doing quite badly, I never liked Cain with Moira so I'm happy they split, if they want to split up a couple, maybe it should be Robron. I cannot except how everyone has just accepted it that he was involved in Katie's death and that he tried to kill Chas....so I wouldn't mind them splitting up.
Apart from that, Emmerdale is suite good. Loving bitch Chrisse by the way. Every Home Farm family needs its bitch.

ive stuck with and enjoyed emmerdale for 36 years... i DO like it, but do not like the direction the new producer has taken it.


i said its becoming unwatchable..

fully agree about your last line.


then why bother replying?.... how odd...

BIB: Speaking as someone who has mental health problems that is a really nasty, uncalled for comment.

The Belle storyline is getting on my wick, evil little moo pretending to be pregnant just to keep that poor sap, then she stops her medication and lets herself get ill again for no reason whatsoever as we all know she didnt have to stop her tablets seeing as she is not pregnant, and now she is the centre off attention again, through her own stupidity.

Worrying her whole family sick for something that was preventable.

True, i'd love to see more animals on screen, more farming scenes, more pics of the Dales it is the show's USP but it is important the show keeps a balance which i'm sure it should be able to find. If the show goes to heavily into the Emmerdale Farm direction the show will unfortunately lose viewers more of the younger and newer fans. Equally, if it becomes too sensational and far fetched it could effect viewer-ship too. For now though, I think it is doing well.

Because my comment was Implying that I don't agree with what you said, I will now elaborate. It's fine If you aren't interested or invested in a particular storyline, because each to their own, that's all good. However, to call a mental illness storyline "daft" Isn't necessary, why Is It daft?

It was always going to be the case once Charley Webb left, She brings the best out of everyone, She is the clog that keeps things clicking over, The queen of the dales will be back soon and the show will be back to it's best, I just hope fans of the show treat her with the respect she deserves when she returns and I think they will as they have seen without her the show is poor

Charley Webb AKA Deborah (Peoples Actress of the year) = Ratings

The latest producer has only had any input the last month or two - did you enjoy every other producer's work for the last 36 years, crikey you're easily pleased?

But more seriously, as someone who has also watched ED since it first began, (not religiously, there have been some long gaps when life got in the way), I have recently wondered if the fact that long term viewers have just grown up/matured/become more discerning or whatever doesn't have a lot to do with it our current dissatisfaction? Particularly as I have long suspected that by and large TPTB are regularly replaced by 'younger models' who haven't yet really grown up nor acquired the sort of life experiences we have, nor hold the same values as we do. I think it might just be the way of the world - we move on and things we enjoyed as kids don't necessarily satisfy us now.

And there is me thinking it was one of the consistent better soaps out of the big 3 for the last 2 years....

It is, certainly-for all its faults

its not the mental illness storyline thats daft, but the way its recently been depicted. i mean, belle ran out the house and couldnt be found? she somehow got to hotten? shes alive and eating but no one seems to know where? her phone was 'live' for days.. and the whole phantom baby story id ridiculous.

belle is a bloody good actress as has been evident in the past. but this material is meh...




nope, but i did say in my opening statement that it had been through poor patches because when its good, its great!


dunno, i started watching it when i was an adult... 36 years ago (partner was at leeds and saw cast members on the bus that went past the studio at the time hence started watching).

my gripe here though has nothing to do with age, but the complete destruction of every partnership... imho one of the best things in a soap is the long term partnership between characters in a family. its nice to see and relate too these people. how can we build up this liking if partnerships are pulled apart every other week? emmerdales worse then payton place...


thats precisely my point, it was but appears to be heading in a direction that will degrade it.

I know your comment wasn't directed at me, but I'd like to explain why I feel Belle's story is stupid. I have a mental health condition, and I didn't take the OP's (possibly poor) choice of words seriously when they described the storyline as "nuts" and "daft".

For me the storyline has been written in the most lazy of ways possible (the whole show feels very lazily written). Lisa and Zak have witnessed Belle's previous psychotic break before, so they should know the signs, but for whatever reason couldn't spot that their daughter had stopped taking her meds - the signs were obvious! Putting her strange behaviour down to her "pregnancy" was also daft, considering the amount of experience they've had with pregnant women and what is generally normal behaviour. Then you have Dr Bailey who is, well, a doctor, and with his vast knowledge and experience couldn't spot the signs that Belle was having a psychotic episode. Ridiculously stupid.

Belle chose to stop taking her meds, because, she wasn't really pregnant. Yeah, makes no sense. This is the most lazy aspect of the entire plot. How are viewers supposed to care when the character does something that makes no logical sense? The pregnancy lie was a bizarre and unnecessary plot development that didn't even provide realistic motivation for Belle to have a relapse.

Then we have Belle's imaginary tormentor, Ellie, who has no emotional ties to viewers. Why not bring back Gemma, who would have been a more believable choice of imaginary tormentor, and viewers knew her character and know they had a history together. Plus, it wasn't that long ago that Belle had her last psychotic break, and this feels too soon after that and too much like a rehash.

This is why I feel this story is stupid (and that's without mentioning the homelessness aspect that also has a load of plot holes).

I agree. I' m not sure why it's s stupid for Be!let to be mentally ill. It's quite common for very intelligent people to have these sorts of conditions. whether the story itself is well executed is a different matter.

That's interesting. I definitely feel like the show is now made by people who are much younger than me, and who I have nothing in common with in terms of values.

Farming isn't t a big employer these days is it? The farms around here have barely any staff, unless they run other businesses. I assumed that was fairly common.

Personally, I found it more believable when we didn't see Belle's tormentor. I don't t think the pregnancy lie was bizarre - Belle is mentally ill. For all we know her imaginary bully ' told' her to do it. She certainly won't t be the first woman to tell that sort of lie. Her medication would surely be reduced by her psychiatrist- no doubt after a very brief appointment - because they believe she is pregnant. So she's s had the double whammy of the stress of the lie, plus the reduction in medication. She doesn't seem to have a community psychiatric nurse or social worker - again believable, these services are very stretched - so there's s no one keeping an eye on her other than her parents and boyfriend. That's s the only part I find unbelievable - that between the three of them ( one of them an ex GP) no one queried her behaviour and bad moods or wondered whether it was related to the change in her medication. Someone with mental health problems becoming homeless is all too common isn't it? Although it's s usually in different circumstances.

sorry thats what i was getting at... of course its not stupid for belle to be mentaly ill, its the execution of this storyline that i find daft, and imho doesnt do anything for the situation.

Sorry, I didn't t see your earlier post.I agree there are a few holes - particularly Dr Bailey's not picking up on Belle's problems and Belle apparently being able to get money for bus fares, although she lost her purse. Was her bank card not in the purse? Surely the police would monitor cash withdrawals?

However, I can believe in someone being so deluded as to think they could cope on lower medication, especially someone so young. She's s done something daft and got herself into problems, and reducing the meds has exacerbated that. Then she can't see her way clear to seeking help.