Emmerdale

The Dingles picket Eric Pollard's latest money-making scheme, a gym in the village hall, to try and force Eric to drop his charges of assault by Mandy. She meanwhile is out spending Paddy's money on designer furnishings with Kelly, who incidently is staying with Roy in the house they are supposed to be just cleaning... What I can't understand is why anyone would employ Roy as a cleaner in the first place - he is easily the dirtiest looking bloke in UK Soaps... Prodigal mother Elsa puts her case to the social workers and then has a screaming row with Kathy in front of Alice... Zoe tells the kidnapper that she won't co-operate with his demands unless she gets proof that Chris is still alive... While Liam continues to torture Chris with the knowledge that Zoe is beginning to confide in him. And he threatens to continue seeing her - "She'll need a good friend. When they find your body." Nasty. ****

(11/10/99) So the mystery is revealed - at least partly. Chris has been kidnapped by new truck driver Liam. Who? Yes, that's what I thought, and now that his captor is no longer disguising himself, that's what Chris is thinking too. Meanwhile Zoe has let stuffy Alan take charge of the theft of antiques at Home Farm. Evil Eric, played increasingly in pantomime villain mode by Christopher Chittell, is busy trying to frame Butch - will this mean Butch will miss Mandy's wedding? That promises to be a good laugh later in the week - Bernice is trying her best to make it a tasteful affair but with the Dingles she has very little chance of that... ***

(5/10/99) A bit of a teaser of a show from Emmerdale with glimpses of Chris Tate's kidnapper being shown. It seems clear to me from the disguise, the fact that the mystery man has not spoken and the physical shape that the kidnapper is in fact a woman. Could it be sister Zoe who has always been a bit unstable? She's buying Home Farm to welcome him home - could it be a sick practical joke? No, she is seriously short of any sort of funny bone... How about step-mother Kim? Now she is capable... Or one of the Lesbian truckers? Elsewhere only the tug-of-love story between auntie Kathy and Alice's prodigal mother is being developed... Let's hope some of the other characters get new stories soon... ***

(30/9/99) So, Chris Tate, wheel-chair bound baddie of this soap, formerly Emmerdale Farm, isn't dead after all. Someone has obviously got him locked up in their cellar, but who would do such a dastardly deed? You'd think a drama set in a pretty village in the Yorkshire Dales would have few monsters capable of illegal imprisonment but don't be fooled... Cathy is fighting to keep custody of her brother's daughter, but with Graham on her side (who has still to be brought to justice for murdering girlfriend Rachel) what are her chances of success? And vicious little Eric is stealing works of art from the Home Farm mansion while a buyer is being sought. Could he be the one? No, I think the culprit is obvious. Bernice, the soon-to-be landlady of the Woolsack, has stashed our Chris in the pub's cellar in order to keep his negative energy from disrupting her Feng-Shui atmosphere... ***
Audience: 11.14m (9th) © BARB

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