On 24th JanuaryEmmerdale officially announced that as of March of this year they will move permanently to a 7.30pm timeslot after airing at 7.00pm since 1977 in addition to replacing their double episodes on Thursdays with one hour-long episode.[1] The new schedule came into effect on 7th March.
On 15th March, Emmerdale unveiled their 50th anniversary logo as they continued to tease "exciting" things coming up for their celebratory episodes.
Viewership[]
The average viewing figure for the year was 4.56 million viewers, which was down 340,000 on 2021. This figure does not include Episode 9469 (18th September 2022), which failed to gain enough viewers to make it into the BARB top 50. The most-watched episode of the year was Episode 9291 (18th February 2022), with 5.69 million viewers, while the least-watched episode was Episode 9469 (18th September 2022), with less than 2.97 million viewers. 58 episodes ranked within the weekly top 10 for all UK TV, which was 27 more than the year before.
The Woolpack is up for auction and Chas and Marlon Dingle fear that Kim Tate will bid for it. However, it is won by an anonymous online bidder who turns out to be former owner Charity Dingle and Ryan Stocks after Charity sells her share in Home James Haulage to Kim and Ryan inherits money from his recently deceased mother, Irene Stocks. Charity offers Marlon and Chas their old jobs as chef and bar manager respectively back but Chas angrily turn her down.
Rhona Goskirk receives a letter from her ex-husband and rapist, Pierce Harris from prison, revealing he is dying and asking her to contact his long lost son, Marcus Dean. Rhona tells Vanessa Woodfield who herself was kidnapped by Pierce and she strongly advices her against it. However, Rhona ends up finding Marcus and leaves him a voice mail. When Marcus calls back, Vanessa gives him a new message, pretending to be Rhona and telling him she made a mistake. However, not satisfied by that explanation, Marcus soon turns up in the village looking for Rhona and is faced by Vanessa who again plays pretend. However, Rhona stumbles upon them and the truth is revealed. Rhona and Marcus have a talk and before either of them have the chance to see Pierce again, the prison informs them that he has died.
Kim tells Laurel Thomas that in order to get the funds for the haulage business she will need to sell her house, Mulberry Cottage, but offers to sell it to her first. Laurel plans to take out a mortgage for it but is told by the bank that she can't as as she had already had taken out a large loan and owes them money. Thinking she had been scammed, Laurel plans to phone the police, forcing her boyfriend Jai Sharma to reveal that he took out the loan in her name and has been lying to her about their financial situation for months. Laurel furiously breaks up with him but covers for him with the bank, blaming the mistake on her alcoholism.
Cain Dingle and Al Chapman's feud continue and it starts to affect Cain's relationship with his son Kyle when Al decides to move in with Kyle's maternal grandmother, Kerry Wyatt. After learning Cain doesn't allow Kyle to have a phone, Al secretly gives him his old one in order to stir up trouble. Cain is furious to find out, resulting in a fight between him and Kyle's mother Amy Wyatt wherein Cain is devastated to realize his own son is scared of him when he shouts at him to not hit Amy before running away and proclaiming he hates him. After a pep-talk from Chas, Cain decides to do everything it takes to earn back Kyle's trust and with some help from Amy, the two make amends.
Dawn Taylor and Billy Fletcher get married on valentines day but their big day is crashed by serial killer Meena who returns to wreak havoc. She assaults Harriet Finch and locks Dawns's 7-year-old son Lucas in a shed before kidnapping both Billy and Dawn and holding them at gunpoint, telling Billy to choose who to die between himself and Dawn. When they are interrupted by wedding planner Leyla Cavanagh, Meena shots her and seemingly leaves her for dead. The hostage situation reaches its climax with Meena attempting to shoot Dawn but she breaks free and almost beats Meena to death before being stopped by Billy. Meena escapes and returns to the village where she faces Liam whose daughter she murdered last year. Meena taunts Liam with what she did to Leanna and wife Leyla, resulting in Liam pushing Meena off of the same bridge where Leanna died. However, Meena soon wakes up and tells police that Liam attempted to murder her but Liam and Manpreet Sharma, who witnessed their confrontation, insists to the police that Liam acted in self defense. Meena is taken into police custody but denies all accusations. With evidence linking her to Ben Tucker's murder, Meena admits to his killing but claims self defense. However, Leyla and Liam finds Meena's trophy box filled with items connecting her to all her victims at the allotment and she is finally charged with the murders of Leanna Cavanagh, Andrea Tate and Ben Tucker, the attempted murders of Victoria Sugden and Leyla Cavanagh, possession of an unregulated firearm, the kidnap, false imprisonment and attempted murders of Manpreet Sharma and Vinny Dingle, the kidnap and false imprisonment of Billy and Dawn Fletcher and arrested for the assault of Harriet Finch. That night, Meena calls vicar Charles Anderson, asking him to visit her as she seeks forgiveness. He goes to visit her but is unsure of her motives. Charles tells her that to repent she needs to confess to all her crimes. Meena eventually admits to him that she killed Andrea, although Charles is repulsed when her realises that she is enjoying retelling how she did it. He then decides to set up a support group for people affected by Meena's actions.
When Vinny presents Liv Flaherty with a pair of earrings in a jewelry box as a valentines day present, Liv mistakes it for a proposal and says yes before realising her mistake. However, Vinny then proposes for real and Liv again accepts. The pair decides to elope and get married days later in secret at a registry office in Daventry. Afterwards, they decide to finally tell their family but Chas and Vinny's mother Mandy Dingle misunderstands and think they have just gotten engaged and seeing how excited they are, they decide to play along.
Rhona's boyfriend Marlon Dingle discovers Pierce has died from reading the paper and is surprised that Rhona already knew although she is reluctant to tell him the whole truth about Marcus. However, things turns complicated when Marcus shows up in the village for a date with Ethan and the two hit it off. Marcus goes to Pierce's will reading and find out he has left an amount of money to Rhona although she is horrified and initially refuses to accept it. Meanwhile, Marlon finds out that Marcus is Pierce's son and is furious that Rhona has been lying to him.
Feeling vulnerable as Meena's arrest has reminded him of his girlfriend Leanna's murder, Jacob Gallagher sleeps with Chloe Harris, the girlfriend of his best friend Noah Dingle. Chloe is disappointed when Jacob says he regrets what happened between them. She soon admits the truth to Noah who is devastated and furious at both of them. Chloe tries to sort things out with Noah but ends things with him for good when he starts throwing sexist insults at her, calling her a "dirty slapper" and "village bike". Following the break up, Amelia tries to cheer him up, making it apparent she has feelings for him.
March[]
As Laurel gets ready to loose her home, Jai agrees to a deal with Kim to sell his shares in HOP to her in exchange for buying the house for Laurel. Jai tells Laurel the news, believing she will take him back but she turns him down. Laurel’s step-daughter Gabby Thomas then tells Kim she wants to buy the house, using money she has left from her late father for a deposit on a mortgage so Laurel can stay. Furious, Jai tell Kim the deal is off but she insists he has already signed. Kim then offers Jai a role as general manager which he is forced to accept.
Charles starts his first meetings with the new support group but they are soon upset to discover he has been meeting Meena in prison, especially Manpreet. After getting over the initial shock, Liam asks Charles to continue meeting her in order to get her to change her plea to guilty. Meena tells Charles she is willing to confess on the condition that Manpreet goes to visit her in prison. Manpreet agrees and goes to meet her sister. After the tumultuous visit, Meena agrees to plea guilty after Manpreet promises to keep contact if she does. However, soon thereafter she tells the police that Manpreet was the one who killed Andrea in order to get back with Charles. Manpreet is brought in for questioning but soon released. She visit Meena one last time to tell her she has no control over her anymore.
Rhona decides to make things right with Marlon by asking him to marry her. However, her proposal attempt gets interrupted by the surprise arrival of her mother, Mary Goskirk. Rhona grown increasingly annoyed at her mother’s constant nagging comments and avoidance of answering why she has come.
As the Woolpack opening is getting closer, Charity and Chas’ feud intensifies as Chas convinces Eric Pollard to employ her as manager of The Grange and plans an event on the same day as The Woolpack’s grand re-opening. The day of the opening arrives and the turn-out at the pub is extremely low and Eric has sent away their food order. Charity confronts Chas which leads to a food fight and Charity fires Mackenzie after he made things worse by trying to sabotage Chas’ event. Afterwards, Charity is comforted by Vanessa and the two almost share a kiss before Vanessa pulls away last second. As Charity gains new hope for a reunion, she attempts to convince Vanessa to give them another go but she tells her the near-kiss was nothing and urges her to think about Mackenzie. In order to win Charity back, Mackenzie makes a grand gesture by suggesting that they move in together but he is hurt when Charity turns him down and decides to move back to Scotland. Charity can’t get Vanessa out of her mind but despite Charity's many efforts, she makes it clear she doesn’t want her back.
After getting a telling-off from Liv for an insensitive comment, vindictive Noah reveals to Mandy that Liv and Vinny are already married. Mandy is left heartbroken that Vinny not only got married but also lied to her and believes it is due to him not seeing her as his real mother. Mandy eventually makes up with Vinny and attends a private blessing in the church church for the couple.
Noah has a party at the café in hopes of winning Chloe back. He attempts to make her jealous by flirting with Amelia but after Chloe doesn’t care, Noah lashes out at Amelia, revealing he was just using her and would never be genuinely interested in her. Amelia’s friends and family support her while Noah gets a telling off from Al.
Billy tells Dawn he wants to adopt Lucas. The pair approaches Alex to ask him to allow the adoption and are surprised when he agrees. However, this later comes with a catch as he contacts Dawn, demanding that she helps him deal drugs in order to pay back his deal or else he will not allow the adoption. However, Dawn agrees but sets him up by recording everything he says and calling the police, getting Alex out of all their lives but also meaning Billy won’t be able to adopt Lucas. Billy makes peace with not being able to legally adopt Lucas though and is thrilled when Lucas calls him ”dad”.
Rhona and Marlon propose to each other at the same time during his surprise birthday party. However, when Marlon goes home to get the ring, he suddenly collapses after suffering a stroke. He is eventually found by his young daughter April and taken to hospital. Marlon is taken to surgery and they are successful in removing the clot but his loved ones are informed his recovery could take months as he still can’t talk or move properly. Mary promises to stay and support Rhona who is terrified of what will happen. Meanwhile, Paddy struggles to see his best friend in that state and takes any excuse not to visit him. Rhona eventually urges him to go and he opens up to Marlon about his struggles. Paddy's visit lifts Marlon's spirits.
Meena pleads guilty to kidnap and attempted murder but not guilty to the murders. Manpreet panics about the prospect of having to testify and fears the jury will believe Meena, and has a panic attack. Manpreet decides that she doesn’t want to take the stand against Meena during her trial. Liam doesn’t take the news well as Manpreet is the only witness to Meena’s confession.
Sparks are flying between Ethan and Marcus as they go on another date and end up sleeping together in the HOP.
Following Marlon’s stroke, the Dingles urge Chas and Charity to make amends and Charity finally gives in and begs Chas to come back to the pub. Chas accepts the job of bar manager and moves back in with her family.
After Samson and Cathy Hope kissed during Noah's party, an ecstatic Cathy begins telling people Samson is her boyfriend. Samson, who himself likes Amelia, eventually loses his temper with Cathy and bluntly tells her there is no way he would ever be interested in her, leaving her heartbroken. Jacob encourages Samson to apologise to Cathy which he does, telling her he would still like to be friends.
Moira Dingle blames Charity for Mackenzie leaving and after she learns of Charity and Vanessa's near-kiss, decides to avenge her brother by abandoning her in the middle of nowhere without her bag and phone. As Charity is left alone walking the road, she is approached by a car which turns out to be driven by Mack after he was called by Vanessa who found Charity's bag dumped on the kerbside by Moira before the pair set off. Charity then pleads with Mack to come home to the village, which he agrees to, only to later humiliate Charity and Vanessa by confronting them about the kiss in the pub, refusing to accept Charity's pleas of forgiveness.
