Emmerdale boss teases deaths in 50th anniversary episodes

Emmerdale producer Jane Hudson has warned of tear-jerking deaths in the 50th anniversary episodes.

Soap bosses have already revealed that Faith Dingle's final scenes are on the horizon, but more Emmerdale residents are in danger when a violent storm touches down in the village for a special episode on Sunday, October 16.

When Digital Spy and other media recently spoke to Jane Hudson, she hinted that the damage from the storm will be felt for days after the Sunday special.

ITV//ITV

"It is a rollercoaster of emotions and there is a visual impact that will blow more than your socks off, put it that way. There’s deaths, there’s destruction but there’s also real moments of intimacy, of heartbreak and of love. We’re going to see our characters tested in not just their physical strength but their emotional strength as well.

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"There’s going to be a lot of tears - I must warn you about that - and we’ll see our community have to deal with the aftermath of this horrific storm," the producer said. "The month has already started with Aaron’s return, we’ve seen that on screen.

"Of course we’ve got the Faith storyline coming up which is going to be incredibly sad. Then we go into our storm, which has got more than one stunt across the week. And then just when you think things can’t get any worse for our Emmerdale characters they really really do and we end the month on a really big bang that propels us well into the new year."

Hudson also touched on why her team chose to revisit a storm storyline for this big anniversary since other soaps have done similar themed weeks.

ITV

"We were conscious that we have done a storm before, but then we’ve done every story before, so it was about how we make the storyline feel different and feel bigger and feel better and more impactful," she said.

"I think one thing that was really important for us when we started talking about our 50th, which was well over a year ago, was our beautiful village. It was wanting to show off our USP which is our village, our landscape, our farms, our scenery."

The producer added: "I was really determined that we would be in daylight. I think it’s really easy when you do something special to go dark and gloomy, but then you can’t see what makes us so special.

"We were determined that this would be a storm, this would be in daylight and we were really drawn to doing a wind storm because that village, when you’re out there shooting, can be a wind tunnel sometimes.

"If you’re familiar with Yorkshire weather, we get some really really bad winds up here. It just felt fitting for us to do that. The other thing that was really important for us was to use as many of our characters as possible. We’ve got a cast of over 60 and they all do an amazing job and this shows them at their best and everybody gets a part to play across this month."

emmerdale village in the storm storyline

AMY BRAMMALL//ITV

While fans can expect some incredible stunts and emotional deaths for popular characters, Hudson also promised there will be time for humour.

"It’s really important to balance all our stories," she said. "Of course in Emmerdale people expect to see massive stunts and we have plenty of those, but it’s also important to show those quiet moments, those intimate moments.

"We’re probably all more familiar with a loved one dying than we are with a cow stampede chasing us, so it’s important we connect with our viewers on that quieter, more peaceful level and allow people to express emotions they maybe haven’t been able to do in their real life and they can do it through Emmerdale so balance is really key to us. And there is always some humour in their despite all the odds, there’s still some humour in this month."

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV, and streams on the ITV Hub.