The Emmerdale Plane crash

The Emmerdale Plane crash was a historical storyline for British soap opera Emmerdale. It occurred in late 1993, and gave emmerdale it's highest ever viewing figures of 18.6 million. It revamped the soap, and had been developed to try and pick up higher viewing figures for the programme. It worked, and the storyline has consequently kept "Emmerdale" as one of the most popular British television soap opera's.

ynposis

Emmerdale is demolished, and four villagers are killed, when a plane crashes into the village. The four victims of the plane crash are: Mark Hughes, Elizabeth Pollard, Archie Brooks, and Leonard Kempinski.

Plot

The Plane crash happened on 30 December 1993. The first scene of the plane crash was when Frank Tate was looking at his wife Kim’s stables when suddenly a ball of fire hits the stables. Nick Bates and Archie Brooks were walking home when they are blinded by some fluid and Archie is engulfed in flames. This would be the last we see of Archie, however his body was never recovered and suspicion remains if he actually died, nevertheless he is declared dead. The Woolpack windows explode in and Joe Sugden crashes his car when a wing of the plane collides with the car, Annie and Leonard Kempinski were also in the car. Joe suffered a broken leg and Annie remained in a coma for several months. However, Leonard died. He and Annie were only married for two months. Up at the stables Kim had to be restrained from trying to retrieve her horses, she listened helplessly as her horses screamed for help. People in the Woolpack started to regain consciousness. Eric Pollard started wandering around looking for his wife, Elizabeth. As the hours passed he started to draw attention as many people became suspicious of his behaviour. Elizabeth is eventually found dead and is declared a victim of the plane crash. However, many people, on and off-screen, believe that Eric killed his wife as she was on her way to the police to report him for forging cheques. Outside, Alan Turner picks up a plane ticket with the name Kurshkov on it, he notices more wreckage in the field together with Angharad and Bernard McAllister and it becomes more clear what has happened. The local school is used as a base. Mark Hughes’s arm can be seen sticking out of some rubble. At the school, Jack Sugden notices Mark's watch amongst the personal belongings that have been found, it is the one that Annie gave him at Christmas. Jack has the unfortunate task of identifying his body. Chris Tate is discovered in the wine bar but his legs are trapped under heavy rubble. When he is retrieved from the rubble he is airlifted to hospital. Chris would learn that he has lost the use of his legs for the rest of his life.

Many buildings in the village were left in ruin as a result of the plane crash. Excluding the four dead villagers, hundreds of other bodies (the plane passengers) were found all over the village.

Development

Before the Plane crash, Emmerdale was largely ignored by press and viewers alike, in the face of much more well known soaps such as Coronation Street, Eastenders, and Brookside. Prior to the Plane crash storyline, an average Emmerdale episode would generally attract around 2 million viewers. Ratings were so low that ITV was planning to cancel Emmerdale. But then, ITV brought Phil Redmond, creator of Brookside, to try and think of a way to attract higher viewing figures to Emmerdale. His solution was the Plane crash storyline.

Trivia

*ITV received many complaints as the timing of the storyline was close to the fifth anniversary of the Lockerbie Disaster.
*The Plane crash took three weeks to film, and cost over £1 million.