Emmerdale Farm in 1979

1979 was Emmerdale Farm's 8th year. Storylines included the rape of Wendy Hotson, Joe Sugden's accidental shooting of Phil Fletcher during an argument, the arrival of new estate manager Maurice Westrop, along with his daughter Judy, a depressive alcoholic. 53 episodes were broadcast this year.

Production

1979 cast

The strike at Yorkshire Television came to an end on 3rd January 1979 at 5.45pm. With new episodes of the programme due to air from 16th January, ITV quickly hurried the remaining three episodes leftover from 1978 into the schedule, beginning with Episode 490 that very evening. The remaining two episodes were broadcast the following week.

Early on in the year, it was announced that Anne W. Gibbons would be taking over from Michael Glynn as producer. Anne would be the programme's first female producer. She took over the position in June, but due to the 1979 ITV Strike, her work wasn't seen on screen until January 1980. The last episode to be shown before the strike was Episode 542 which was also the last episode aired before the programme's summer break.

The popularity of the show continued to increase as more and more episodes broke into the AGB ratings charts. This year, 33 episodes out of the 53 broadcast made the top twenty chart.

Episodes

#	Ep. No.	Date	Writer	Director	Viewing Figures	Chart Position
1	490	Wednesday 3rd January	Malcolm Lynch	Nick Gray	n/k	n/k
2	491	Tuesday 9th January	Neville Siggs	Darrol Blake	n/k	n/k
3	492	Thursday 11th January	Neville Siggs	Darrol Blake	n/k	n/k
4	493	Tuesday 16th January	Neville Siggs	Darrol Blake	n/k	n/k
5	494	Thursday 18th January	Neville Siggs	Darrol Blake	n/k	n/k
6	495	Tuesday 23rd January	Neville Siggs	Darrol Blake	14,750,000	17
7	496	Thursday 25th January	Neville Siggs	Darrol Blake	n/k	n/k
8	497	Tuesday 30th January	Kevin Laffan	Paddy Russell	14,300,000	12
9	498	Thursday 1st February	Neville Siggs	Darrol Blake	n/k	n/k
10	499	Tuesday 6th February	Kevin Laffan	Paddy Russell	n/k	n/k
11	500	Thursday 8th February	Kevin Laffan	Paddy Russell	14,000,000	20
12	501	Tuesday 13th February	Kevin Laffan	Paddy Russell	14,550,000	20
13	502	Thursday 15th February	Kevin Laffan	Paddy Russell	14,800,000	16
14	503	Tuesday 20th February	Douglas Watkinson	Richard Handford	14,550,000	12
15	504	Thursday 22nd February	Douglas Watkinson	Richard Handford	14,250,000	16
16	505	Tuesday 27th February	Douglas Watkinson	Richard Handford	13,850,000	17
17	506	Thursday 1st March	Douglas Watkinson	Richard Handford	13,800,000	18
18	507	Tuesday 6th March	Douglas Watkinson	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
19	508	Thursday 8th March	Douglas Watkinson	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
20	509	Tuesday 13th March	William Humble	Michael E. Briant	n/k	n/k
21	510	Thursday 15th March	William Humble	Michael E. Briant	n/k	n/k
22	511	Tuesday 20th March	William Humble	Michael E. Briant	13,850,000	19
23	512	Thursday 22nd March	William Humble	Michael E. Briant	n/k	n/k
24	513	Tuesday 27th March	William Humble	Michael E. Briant	n/k	n/k
25	514	Thursday 29th March	William Humble	Michael E. Briant	n/k	n/k
26	515	Tuesday 3rd April	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	13,650,000	16
27	516	Thursday 5th April	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	13,550,000	18
28	517	Tuesday 10th April	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	n/k	n/k
29	518	Thursday 12th April	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	n/k	n/k
30	519	Tuesday 17th April	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	12,550,000	18
31	520	Thursday 19th April	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	12,900,000	14
32	521	Tuesday 24th April	Chris Barlas	Peter Smith	12,650,000	17
33	522	Thursday 26th April	Chris Barlas	Peter Smith	12,750,000	15
34	523	Tuesday 1st May	Chris Barlas	Peter Smith	13,050,000	10
35	524	Thursday 3rd May	Chris Barlas	Peter Smith	12,400,000	16
36	525	Tuesday 8th May	Chris Barlas	Peter Smith	12,500,000	18
37	526	Thursday 10th May	Chris Barlas	Peter Smith	13,150,000	13
38	527	Tuesday 15th May	Andy Baker	Richard Handford	11,000,000	15
39	528	Thursday 17th May	Andy Baker	Richard Handford	11,850,000	9
40	529	Tuesday 22nd May	Andy Baker	Richard Handford	12,450,000	8
41	530	Thursday 24th May	Andy Baker	Richard Handford	12,250,000	10
42	531	Tuesday 29th May	Andy Baker	Richard Handford	11,100,000	12
43	532	Thursday 31st May	Andy Baker	Richard Handford	11,050,000	13
44	533	Tuesday 5th June	Michael Russell	Mike Gibbon	11,150,000	17
45	534	Thursday 7th June	Michael Russell	Mike Gibbon	11,750,000	13
46	535	Tuesday 12th June	Neville Siggs	Mike Gibbon	n/k	n/k
47	536	Thursday 14th June	Neville Siggs	Mike Gibbon	11,800,000	10
48	537	Tuesday 19th June	Neville Siggs	Mike Gibbon	9,650,000	20
49	538	Thursday 21st June	Neville Siggs	Mike Gibbon	10,500,000	16
50	539	Tuesday 26th June	Kevin Laffan	Richard Handford	10,100,000	16
51	540	Thursday 28th June	Kevin Laffan	Richard Handford	11,050,000	13
52	541	Tuesday 3rd July	Kevin Laffan	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
53	542	Thursday 5th July	Kevin Laffan	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k

Main Cast

Ranking	Character	Played by	Duration	Number of Episodes	Running total	Previous year's ranking
1	Annie Sugden	Sheila Mercier	Full year	53	524	1
1	Amos Brearly	Ronald Magill	Full year	53	511	1
1	Henry Wilks	Arthur Pentelow	Full year	53	512	1
4	Joe Sugden	Frazer Hines	Full year	52	527	7
5	Matt Skilbeck	Frederick Pyne	Full year	47	513	1
6	Sam Pearson	Toke Townley	Full year	41	483	6
7	Dolly Skilbeck	Katharine Barker	Until February, April to July	39	169	1
8	Maurice Westrop	Edward Dentith	From January	38	38	-
9	Donald Hinton	Hugh Manning	Until February, from April	35	120	8
10	Seth Armstrong	Stan Richards	May only	8	25	9
11	Judy Westrop	Jane Cussons	From June	4	4	-

Storylines

to be added

Who lives where

to be added

Awards and Nominations

to be added