Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BEHIND SCENES
ADEADLY explosion in Emmerdale’s barn tonight leaves Mandy Dingle’s wedding dreams hanging by a thread in the first spectacular TV soap stunt since the pandemic started.
Over the past three days, teaser scenes have been screened showing three residents lying in hospital – Paul Ashdale, Liv Flaherty and Jimmy King – but fans will have to tune in to find out who is in grave danger of losing their life.
The nightmare begins when Paul and Liv have a row in the barn after she starts to gather evidence to prove he has been beating up son Vinny.
Meanwhile, driving towards the barn in a van is Jimmy, who is feeling panic-stricken about his struggle with ex Juliette over the custody of their son, Carl.
And just as he nears the barn, events take a dramatic twist, causing a catastrophe...
“The explosion is one of the biggest I have ever
IN HARM’S WAY Liv confronts Paul in the wedding barn seen on Emmerdale,” says actor Nick Miles, 58, who has played long-suffering Jimmy for 16 years.
“It was like being on a movie set and I have not seen anything so immense. The courage to do such a big explosion, set against Covid restrictions, is enormous.” It took Emmerdale bosses four months to plan the dramatic plotline. As part of strict guidelines, a bare minimum of cast and crew were on set for the stunt at any one time, with seven unmanned cameras – one of which blew up in the explosion – used to keep numbers down. A special barn was designed to make sure the best possible scenes could be shot within the restrictions and mannequins were used for close shots.
Chutes were also attached to the barn to fire off a mixture of gas and petrol to cause the explosion, while lightweight debris was fired out to make the scenes even more dramatic. To keep the actors safe, stunt doubles took their place for close action shots too. “I never felt in