I quite fancy visiting Harewood. I often see it advertised - it looks beautiful.

Shedloads of commuters yep. Otley's just had a 150-odd housing estate built on the outskirts of the town on what was the former Garnetts Paper Mill and I know of at least five families who've moved there from the Manchester area and at least one or two of them are still commuting into Manchester!


Very much worth a visit, the grounds are wonderful even without going into the house and there's stuff going on there pretty much all year round. It's reasonably cheap to just get into the grounds, there's a brilliant adventure playground, bird garden (sadly now showing its age a bit) and loads of extensive walks.

I'd say that Emmerdale and Hollyoaks are much more middle class than Corrie or EE. If we take education and profession into consideration, there are many more characters at that standard in those two tgan others.

In Emmerdale we have 3 vets, 2 lawyers, an ex Doctor and a Nurse all of which require degrees and several years professional training and are traditionally seen as careers for the 'well to do' except perhaps Nursing. Chastity and Finn went to University, I'd imagine Chrissie and Bex might have as well, certainly private school. Laurence, Frank and Rodney all speak well and seem like they might have priveledged upbringings. Maybe Eric as well

Then there are the self made, wealthy characters like the Sharmas, Maceys and Kings when they arrived.

I think.it is just that the Dingles are seen as the main family and they are working class.

HO is similar. The Blakes were certainly middle class, the Lomaxes, Nightingales and Lovedays too as there is a level of education and professional careers like Teaching, Law, Medicine

Again, I think it is the show being judged by the McQueens

When Declan we organising his festival he talked about some of the land being ' on the edge of the National Park'or words to that effect...I think he was concerned that tighter restrictions would apply if events strayed over the boundary.

I know I'm right, I've in Otley my whole life so have seen them filming Emmerdale over the years. I was also a journalist on our local paper so when the original farm was put up for sale, I wrote about it at the time

I think in the show they've tried to hide exactly where it is and while Otley's a wee bit away from the Yorkshire Dales National Park (Skipton's generally held to be the gateway to the Dales), it is on the doorstep I suppose in terms of tourism etc.

Esholt, the village they originally filmed in for the Woolpack etc, is about 6 miles away from Otley on the way over to Bradford, even further away from the Dales!

Yorkshire TV used to film Heartbeat in Otley as well, the old courthouse was the police station, various other locations in town were used. Inspector Banks films here now and the latest Sean Bean TV show, can't remember what it was called, filmed up on one of the housing estates over the bridge earlier this year.
Lots of stuff's been filmed here over the years, a lot of Kay Mellor, they filmed The Chase, about the vets, here a few years ago.

Exactly.

So many different things are involved id deciding somebodys class
Backgrpund so family money, what level of affluence they lived in as a child, their education, their accent, their profession, their current wealth, where they live (location and type of accomodation), who they mix with socially, and not least of all, how they view themselves.

But, for a duscussion like this, I gess I look at te socio economic classifications which do tend to focus on level of education reached and profession.

You should start a guided tour of the filming locations. I bet that would be a good business! Didn't t people used to flock to Heartbeat country?

We do get quite a lot of tourists. When Emmerdale was still Emmerdale Farm and they did still used to film at the farm in Lindley, we used to get coaches full of Japanese tourists where it was apparently really popular!

I think there did used to be a coach company that ran tours round "Emmerdale Country" but I've not seen anything recently. Oh here you go!

http://www.door2tour.com/holiday-typ...ocation-tours/

They were filming Emmerdale Christmas scenes (I assume) at the beginning of November and again last week in and around the town centre, parish church and up Station Road.

Various places: http://www.visitotley.co.uk/whats-on/tv-and-film/

Most of the characters are more well-spoken in EastEnders, Neighbours and Home & Away than Coronation Street, Emmerdale or Hollyoaks.

Interesting to read the comments about Emmerdale though. I think the way the show is styled and filmed makes it look more working class - the sets are all shabby and the lighting is dark, perhaps I haven't watched it long enough to take notice of the characters.

In EE I think the characters come across more middle-class than they're supposed to given their jobs and careers.

As for Hollyoaks, Ste is the main character in that show isn't he? And yeah the McQueens. I like the look of the Nightingales, but I think the unrealistic stories and bad acting actually put me off this show more than it's working class style.

ETA: Don't know if this is just a 'Northern' thing.

Having said all that, Corrie was good in the 60s and 70s so it can't be the working class thing that puts me off

I wouldn't t say the ED sets are shabby apart from the Dingles' place and, as you'd expect, the garage and scrapyard. I wouldn't t say that any of the houses are up to date but they,' re not shabby.It doesn't t like particularly dark either. ( but then I' m in Scotland so w have low light levels too)The village set itself is lovely. From what I remember of EE when I watched it, it looked pretty rough ,- outside anyway. Re lighting, I often notice how harsh the light seems to be in programmes filmed outdoors in London

You're ve had loads

Who do you think is well spoken in EE? Genuine question.

Baffled as to why people think H&A is working class. Nobody ever has money troubles there, the homes are modern and they all work. Granted there are plenty of illegal activities tho! Cheryl Braxton stands out as working class and her house does but I wouldn't say anybody else.
I think Emmerdale is middle class too but with the exception of the Dingles and that vile set.
I actually think H&A and Emmerdale are similar in a lot of ways....the scenery, the realistic sets, the disasters, Emily Symons and neither are afraid to explore the unknown.

Given that they referenced EastEnders, and the Aussie soaps as being more "well spoken" I think what they are saying is they have a preference for "southern" accents.

I thought the Australian accent(yes I know there are variations, but the variations aren't too dissimilar right?) was derived from Londoners/southerners primarily?

Ronnie would be my immediate thought.

Compared to the rest of EE maybe, I'd also say Jane is fairly well spoken for EE but very 'common' compared to Sienna Blake, Simone Loveday, Marnie anfd James Nightingale in HO and Lawrence, Chrissie, Rebecca, Frank in Emmerdale to name just a few characters.

As somebody else, is it perhaps a subconscious dislike for any Northern inflection? Not that mist of the characters I mentioned there have Northern infkection, there pretty much either RP or perceived posh.

I'm born in the North, bred in the South by the way so feel I cam be quite nuetral re accent discussion.

Working class people have jobs too, and they don't t all break the law.

Re Aussie accents, I don't know enough about them to comment. I would say that some do seem more pronounced than others, even when supposedly from the same area which I have taken as some indicator of class. For example, the difference between Max Ramsay and Jim Robinson in Neighbours or Alf Stewart and Don Fisher in H&A.

You can live in a nice home and have no money troubles as such and still be working class. It's about clothes, the way you talk, the job you have, your ambitions, even the music you like and the foods you eat. Granted they're middle class persons in Summer Bay, but the vibe and attraction that I get from it these days is about sex, drugs and rock n roll. It's got more of a laid back chilled feel more in line with working class customs in my view.

Yes, Aussies (at least the ones I've met in real life and seen on the tele) accents are certainly more similar to Estuary English than any other dialect in the UK. No idea why historically though there probably will be a reason.

It is true, I don't like Northern accents much. But I could get past this for characters like Ena Sharples or Bet Lynch.

Even if soaps were as you say more working class then others why on earth does that matter?

I don't know, find the said soaps difficult to watch, just extremely unappealing. The other ones seem more aspirational (bar the crime element in h&a), and the EE characters feel more real and relatable.

I don't like northern accents either. Mainly because I'm from the South and sometimes I can't understand what their saying. Not all the time though. I can understand the cast in Corrie and Emmerdale. It's usually presenters or comedians with northern accents I struggle to get to grips with. Paddy Mcguiness and Vernon Kay are the worst for me! I'm currently practicing my driving theory at the moment and the people on the video footage all have strong northern accents like Vernon Kay. I just find it so hard to understand them I have to keep replaying what their saying! Lol

It's despicable really, I feel really terrible saying it But I think it's gotta be part of it. I wonder if EE is more popular in the South and Corrie more popular up North?