Emmerdale Farm in 1983

1983 was Emmerdale Farm's 12th year. Storylines included Sandie Merrick's pregnancy and Joe Sugden's affair with Barbara Peters and his departure for France. 72 episodes were broadcast this year.

Production

Ian Sharrock and Beverley Callard as Jackie Merrick and Angie Richards.

Anne W. Gibbons continued work as producer for the majority of the year, but handed over to Richard Handford from Episode 819 on 4th October. Around the same time, Frazer Hines left the series as Joe Sugden moved to France. Onscreen, Joe's relationship with Barbara Peters also ended and she left the village as Rosie Kerslake departed. Jane Hutcheson took a break as Sandie Merrick for the remainder of the year, leaving in February as Sandie went to stay with Tom Merrick in Aberdeen.

Elsewhere, George Little reappeared as Edward Ruskin, last seen in 1974, for a small storyline in May and, in November, Tony Pitts joined the cast as Archie Brooks, shortly after being turned down for the part of Terry Duckworth in Coronation Street. Beverley Callard passed through the village this year in a supporting role, playing Angie Richards, a love interest for Jackie Merrick.

One tabloid newspaper publicly revealed the previously 'secret' location of Esholt being used for exterior scenes since 1976. A story was printed about residents from the "tiny Yorkshire village of Esholt, near Bradford" being angered over an increase in tourists after coach operators discovered the location of filming. The report went on to say that some tourists had been trespassing on private land in an attempt to catch glimpses of the cast. Yorkshire Television were still under contract not to name the village however and only provided comment to say that they had never done-so, so it was up to members of the public to find out if the newspapers reports were true.

In other goings on, Al Dixon's portrayal of silent Woolpack customer Walter made the tabloids as fans set up a petition for Yorkshire Television to give Walter lines of dialogue. The petition was to no avail however and Walter remained onscreen and silent.

Viewing figures also made the headlines this year as the programme creeped into ITV's Top 10 chart a total of eight times. At one point even rising to number five and prompting a newspaper to declare that the programme was now rivaling Crossroads, though in the long-term that wasn't strictly the case. Cast and crew reportedly believed that should Thames Television grant them a prime time slot, they would seriously start being able to challenge the other serials, but Thames made no change to its schedule.

The programme's summer break once again saw it disappear from schedules for July and August.

Episodes

#	Ep. No.	Date	Writer	Director	Viewing Figures	Chart Position
1	771	Tuesday 11th January	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
2	772	Thursday 13th January	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
3	773	Tuesday 18th January	Michael Russell	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
4	774	Thursday 20th January	Michael Russell	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
5	775	Tuesday 25th January	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
6	776	Thursday 27th January	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
7	777	Tuesday 1st February	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
8	778	Thursday 3rd February	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
9	779	Tuesday 8th February	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
10	780	Thursday 10th February	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
11	781	Tuesday 15th February	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
12	782	Thursday 17th February	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	12,850,000	12
13	783	Tuesday 22nd February	Anthony Couch	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
14	784	Thursday 24th February	Anthony Couch	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
15	785	Tuesday 1st March	Alan Downer	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
16	786	Thursday 3rd March	Alan Downer	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
17	787	Tuesday 8th March	Alan Downer	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
18	788	Thursday 10th March	Alan Downer	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
19	789	Tuesday 15th March	Ken Blakeson	Chris Baker	n/k	n/k
20	790	Thursday 17th March	Ken Blakeson	Chris Baker	n/k	n/k
21	791	Tuesday 22nd March	Ken Blakeson	Chris Baker	12,950,000	9
22	792	Thursday 24th March	Ken Blakeson	Chris Baker	12,000,000	11
23	793	Tuesday 12th April	Ken Blakeson	Chris Baker	n/k	n/k
24	794	Thursday 14th April	Ken Blakeson	Chris Baker	n/k	n/k
25	795	Tuesday 19th April	Neville Siggs	Richard Handford	11,150,000	12
26	796	Thursday 21st April	Neville Siggs	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
27	797	Tuesday 26th April	Neville Siggs	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
28	798	Thursday 28th April	Neville Siggs	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
29	799	Tuesday 3rd May	Neville Siggs	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
30	800	Thursday 5th May	Neville Siggs	Richard Handford	n/k	n/k
31	801	Tuesday 10th May	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	11,650,000	9
32	802	Thursday 12th May	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
33	803	Tuesday 17th May	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	11,300,000	9
34	804	Thursday 19th May	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	10,400,000	12
35	805	Tuesday 24th May	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	10,250,000	12
36	806	Thursday 26th May	Kevin Laffan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
37	807	Tuesday 31st May	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	n/k	n/k
38	808	Thursday 2nd June	Kevin Laffan	Mike Gibbon	9,900,000	n/k
39	809	Tuesday 7th June	Tim Vaughan	Mike Gibbon	9,750,000	n/k
40	810	Thursday 9th June	Tim Vaughan	Mike Gibbon	n/k	n/k
41	811	Tuesday 14th June	Tim Vaughan	Mike Gibbon	10,700,000	5
42	812	Thursday 16th June	Tim Vaughan	Mike Gibbon	9,650,000	n/k
43	813	Tuesday 13th September	Kevin Laffan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
44	814	Thursday 15th September	Kevin Laffan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
45	815	Tuesday 20th September	Kevin Laffan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
46	816	Thursday 22nd September	Kevin Laffan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
47	817	Tuesday 27th September	Kevin Laffan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
48	818	Thursday 29th September	Kevin Laffan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
49	819	Tuesday 4th October	Tim Vaughan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
50	820	Thursday 6th October	Tim Vaughan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
51	821	Tuesday 11th October	Tim Vaughan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
52	822	Thursday 13th October	Tim Vaughan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
53	823	Tuesday 18th October	Tim Vaughan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
54	824	Thursday 20th October	Tim Vaughan	Frank W. Smith	n/k	n/k
55	825	Tuesday 25th October	Adrian Reid	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
56	826	Thursday 27th October	Adrian Reid	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
57	827	Tuesday 1st November	Adrian Reid	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
58	828	Thursday 3rd November	Adrian Reid	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
59	829	Tuesday 8th November	Tim Vaughan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
60	830	Thursday 10th November	Tim Vaughan	Mervyn Cumming	n/k	n/k
61	831	Tuesday 15th November	Michael Russell Tim Vaughan	Stephen Butcher	n/k	n/k
62	832	Thursday 17th November	Michael Russell Tim Vaughan	Stephen Butcher	n/k	n/k
63	833	Tuesday 22nd November	Michael Russell Tim Vaughan	Stephen Butcher	n/k	n/k
64	834	Thursday 24th November	Michael Russell Tim Vaughan	Stephen Butcher	n/k	n/k
65	835	Tuesday 29th November	Michael Russell Tim Vaughan	Stephen Butcher	n/k	n/k
66	836	Thursday 1st December	Michael Russell Tim Vaughan	Stephen Butcher	n/k	n/k
67	837	Tuesday 6th December	Michael Russell	Lovett Bickford	n/k	n/k
68	838	Thursday 8th December	Michael Russell	Lovett Bickford	n/k	n/k
69	839	Tuesday 13th December	Michael Russell	Lovett Bickford	n/k	n/k
70	840	Thursday 15th December	Michael Russell	Lovett Bickford	n/k	n/k
71	841	Tuesday 20th December	Michael Russell	Lovett Bickford	n/k	n/k
72	842	Thursday 22nd December	Michael Russell	Lovett Bickford	n/k	n/k

Main Cast

Ranking	Character	Played by	Duration	Number of Episodes	Running total	Previous year's ranking
1	Matt Skilbeck	Frederick Pyne	Full year	72	804	1
1	Seth Armstrong	Stan Richards	Full year	72	268	7
1	Pat Sugden	Helen Weir	Full year	72	241	1
4	Amos Brearly	Ronald Magill	Full year	71	800	7
4	Jackie Merrick	Ian Sharrock	Full year	71	217	1
6	Dolly Skilbeck	Jean Rogers	Full year	70	431	7
6	Jack Sugden	Clive Hornby	Full year	70	384	1
6	Henry Wilks	Arthur Pentelow	Full year	70	804	1
9	Alan Turner	Richard Thorp	Full year	69	117	14
10	Donald Hinton	Hugh Manning	Full year	67	317	11
11	Annie Sugden	Sheila Mercier	Full year except March	61	773	12
12	Sam Pearson	Toke Townley	Full year except March	57	727	13
13	Barbara Peters	Rosie Kerslake	Until October	52	56	16
14	Joe Sugden	Frazer Hines	Until October	38	758	6
15	Jock MacDonald	Drew Dawson	February to March, October and December	18	20	-
16	Sandie Merrick	Jane Hutcheson	Until February	11	155	10
17	Archie Brooks	Tony Pitts	From November	8	8	-
18	Edward Ruskin	George Little	May only	3	101	-

Storylines

to be added

Who lives where

to be added

Awards and Nominations

to be added p