Kim Tate

Kimberley Jane Tate (née Barker, previously Marchant) is the second wife of Frank Tate and is hailed as one of the most iconic Emmerdale characters.

1959-1989: Early Life
Kimberley Jane Barker was born on the 19th January 1959. Kim started out as Frank Tate's secretary. She had an affair with him while his wife, Jean, was dying of cancer, despite Frank being old enough to be her father. Frank's son, Chris, was also attracted to Kim although they later became bitter enemies.

1989-1994: Arrival and plane crash
After Jean's death, Frank and Kim married and they moved to Home Farm in late 1989. Kim initially seemed to be a nice person who got on well with Frank's two children Chris and Zoe. She was also good friends with Chris's wife, Kathy. This all changed in 1992 when her affair with Neil Kincaid was discovered. Frank found out on Christmas Day and threw Kim out of Home Farm. Kim ended her relationship with Neil not long afterwards.

After Kim and Frank separated in 1993, she set up stables under her maiden name of Kim Barker. This, however, didn't last long as the stables were destroyed in the plane crash in December that year, killing many of the horses. After the plane crash, Frank and Kim put aside their differences and reconciled, remarrying in December 1994. However, Zoe and Chris never trusted her again.

1995-1996: Affair with Dave, James's birth and Dave's death
In 1995, Kim began an affair with Dave Glover, boyfriend of Kim's former friend Kathy Tate (now divorced from Chris). This time Kim was much more ruthless about keeping the affair secret and trampled Kathy's brother Nick with her horse when he threatened to expose her. She also threatened Nick's daughter Alice. When Frank had a heart attack and was advised to take it easy, Kim encouraged him to sleep with her in the hope of inducing another heart attack. Kim became pregnant and wasn't sure who the father was. When Frank overheard Dave and Biff Fowler discussing the situation, he did have another heart attack and ended up in hospital. He then had time to think and decided to pretend not to know about the affair while hiring a private detective to follow Kim and Dave before confronting his wife with the evidence. He also hired schemimg Tina Dingle as a secretary in Home Farm who used to wind Kim up by wearing her dresses that Frank had bought. He offered her a million pounds to dump Dave and name him as the father and Kim accepted. Their son was named James Francis Tate.

However, after bonding with the baby, Kim and Dave resumed their relationship, despite the fact that he was now married to Kathy. They planned to run away together, but a fire broke out at Home Farm and Dave died - of injuries sustained while rescuing baby James - in hospital on Boxing Day 1996.

1997-1999: Fake death, Frank's death, hit-and-run and departure
In February 1997, Kim disappeared from the village, and a few days later a woman was found dead at the wheel of her car. Frank identified the body as Kim; however, in May Frank was stunned when Kim returned, revealing she had paid a lookalike prostitute to drive her car around the village to fool people into thinking she was still there (when in fact she had fled to the Caribbean) and that it was her body, not Kim's, that Frank had identified. The shock caused Frank - who had spent time on remand for her murder - to have another heart attack, this time fatal. Kim watched him die, saying "You're a dinosaur Frank - and you know what happened to them", checked he was dead with her compact mirror, then coolly redid her make-up. Chris blamed her for his death and swore revenge.

After Frank's will was read out, Kim inherited a half share of Home Farm. She later started seeing Steve Marchant (who later became her husband), who also had a share in Home Farm.

In 1998, when Kim and her new husband, Steve, fell on hard times, they planned to make money by stealing a horse and selling it, after replacing it with an older horse in the hope that no-one would notice the difference. Whilst driving the horse-box, however, Steve happened to run over Kathy. Kim managed (after narrowly preventing Steve finishing Kathy off in the hospital) to talk to Kathy while she was alone, concussed and vulnerable. She persuaded her that Steve had not stopped his vehicle when he had hit her to make her husband seem like the sole villain of the piece - even though she had helped to plan the theft of the horse.

On the day of trial in January 1999, with the lawyers questioning Kathy's validity as a witness for Steve's hit-and-run crime, Kathy herself questioned how true Kim's words had been. For this, and numerous other crooked tricks, the police were soon on her trail. Needing to escape, Kim discovered that Chris had found the money from the robbery that she had buried in Frank's grave. She confronted Chris, tried seducing him, and knocked him out with a paperweight when he was not fooled. Then she confessed that she had indeed, as he speculated, killed his father; he had died of a heart attack while she looked on - in precisely the location Chris was now lying in. She left with her son, James, in a helicopter. The pilot asked her if she was Kim Marchant, and with her final words on the show she replied, "No, Kim Tate".

She has never been seen again. Kim is consequently one of the soap's few villains never to be punished for her crimes, or properly killed off. She was sentenced by the court in her absence, regardless.

1999-2017: Intervening years
Kim sent flowers to Emmerdale for the funeral of Seth Armstrong in 2005.

At some point between 1989 and 1998, Kim had met Graham Foster at a function. Graham was in a loveless relationship with a woman named Cheryl and gave into temptation, igniting an affair with Kim. Cheryl knew that Graham was being unfaithful, but due to his drink problem, she refused to confront them both. Cheryl became pregnant with Graham's baby and they married, but a drunk Graham had a collision with a tree whilst driving Cheryl back from her baby shower. Instead of phoning for emergency services, Graham phoned Kim but the car exploded, killing Cheryl and the baby. Kim comforted Graham and got him a job as groundskeeper for Joe's school. Joe and Graham struck up a friendship and Joe saved Graham when he tried to kill himself by burning down his hut. When Kim was sent to prison, she and Graham kept in touch.

2018: Brief Return
In October 2018, Kim was released from prison and met up with Graham. Kim found out that Joe had caused financial problems with his business and Kim felt she was unable to handle him anymore. She told Graham to get rid of Joe, but Graham packed a bag for Joe, gave him £100,000 and told him to make a run for it.

Kim arrived at Home Farm in a flashy sports car, which went under auction and sold to Eric Pollard for £20,000 to raise Sarah Sugden Jr.'s heart condition treatment, but Kim refused to give him the car because it was undervalued. After finding out about Joe, Kim ordered Graham to kill him. Cain Dingle later attacked Joe after he walked out of his wedding to his daughter, Debbie, and Graham said he was dead. Kim went upstairs and was pushed from the balcony by an unseen assailant, and crashed into a champagne fountain below. She survived the fall and was diagnosed with a serious head trauma and large quantity of blood loss.

Background information

 * According to Claire King's autobiography - 'Confessions of a Bad Girl', Kim was originally going to be married to Chris, but the writers decided that Kim was more interested in the Tate money and would have 'cut out the middle man' by marrying Frank.
 * Claire King quit the role in October 1996, but a few days after her final scenes aired in February 1997, the producers asked her back with more exciting storylines and a high pay rise, which saw Kim return on screen in May 1997. She decided to leave again in August 1998 and remained until January 1999.
 * Claire King finally accepted a return to the role in 2018 after years of rejecting, out of fear the character may get ruined. Her first scenes after nearly 20 years aired in October 2018.

Trivia

 * Kim worked as a bingo caller in Cleethorpes during the summer of 1984.

Quotes
"'Scuse me, can you tell me the quickest way to Home Farm please?" - first line to Seth Armstrong.

"You're a dinosaur, Frank. And you know what happened to them." - to Frank Tate when she watched him die of a heart attack.

"No. Kim Tate." - final line before her 1999 departure - to a helicopter pilot when he asked if she was Kim Marchant.

"Keys" - first line after her 2018 return - to Graham Foster, requesting he give her the keys to Home Farm.

"You know it's true what they say. You learn a lot in prison. Careful who you trust; do it to them before they do it to you. And if you really want something, I mean really want it. Don't let anybody or anything stand if your way!" - to Graham Foster when she quotes her monologue following her prison release.

"I don't take orders from an ex-prostitute" - to Charity Dingle when she tells her to "watch her tongue".

"I suggest you go and comfort your gold-digging sister... share you woes... I'm guessing there's plenty" - to Noah and Charity when Kim gets criticised by Vanessa for being rude to Noah.