It’ll blow you away!
STORM CLOUDS ARE GATHERING OVER THE WOOLPACK AS EMMERDALE CELEBRATES TURNING 50... WILL EVERYONE IN THE VILLAGE SURVIVE?
THE rural soap’s 50th birthday celebrations begin serenely enough but you just know that this is the calm before the storm – the series that once destroyed its original village in a plane crash was never going to let such a milestone pass without incident.
And storm clouds are indeed gathering... quite literally.
We’re in for a special featurelength Sunday night episode, with a brooding Will seeming pensive ahead of his wedding, while Priya hurriedly dashes about preparing for the big day.
Bride-to-be Kim is out for a ride to clear her head, but soon the weather takes a turn – and everyone is surprised by the ferocity.
It kickstarts a week of drama that promises to blow viewers away, with bosses hinting at least one popular character will be killed off.
With action like that – and having first appeared in the Dales in 1989 – even wild horses couldn’t have kept experienced rider Claire King, who plays Kim, away. “It’s good to be at the heart of it all. I’m very honoured,” says the 60-year-old.
It took two days to transform the Emmerdale village set for the wedding scenes. Wind machines were used to create the destructive tempest.
“We’ve got multiple big stunts and set pieces that are very ambitious for a show like this – it’s all going to be great,” says director Ian Bevitt.
Kim’s side-saddle ride is a tribute to the soap’s opening.
“Fittingly, for the 50th, we are looking back at the original episode from 1972 and doing little nods to it,” he adds.
“It started with lady of the manor Marian Wilks riding a white horse and that’s why we have Kim arriving at her wedding in a similar way.”
The big moments that everyone in the village has long been anticipating – the wedding, of course, as well as Amelia’s pregnancy, Aaron and Liv’s resolution – are all thrown into stark uncertainty as events unfold through the week.