A King's ransom

I imagine the red tops will be sharpening their ratings knives for Friday morning’s reports of Emmerdale giving a thorough spanking to everybody’s favourite soap whipping boy, EastEnders. Yes, tomorrow we have another of the infrequent hour-long Emmerdale specials that resolve some major storyline shenanigans for the everyday northern folk, seeing it directly compete for our affections with the Walford regulars. And, on the basis of the current Emmerdale storyline, involving kidnap plots and the departure of Pasty Kensit to pastures Holby, I’m afraid to say that, with cold inevitability, EastEnders will get it’s chirpy cockernee behind kicked. Sorry lads.

I’m thoroughly enjoying Emmerdale this week, and I will happily sing the virtues of Thursday’s episode having had a sneak preview. I have said this in the past, but it consistently impresses me that Emmerdale can pull these huge storylines out of the hat, week in, week out. There’s always an event, a big moment to spike the ratings, and on a soap’s filming schedule, that’s tough to achieve.

This week has seen the twisty-turny kidnap plot that sees Sadie King and Cain Dingle abducting Tom King, holding him ransom for his considerable fortune, but the script keeps everything fluid and will have you stumped right to the very end. It feels like some bleak action thriller, not a soap about farms, and you’ve just got to love the audacity.

And as for Patsy Kensit, Emmerdale will miss her deeply. This could have been the riskiest piece of casting in soap history – a soap actor should never be bigger than the show, and Kensit’s form was such that her entrance as Sadie could have seriously upended Emmerdale. But she played the game like a seasoned pro, putting in the hard graft it takes to be truly successful in a soap, showing she’s still gorrit, and then some. Whether Sadie survives the plunge into the quarry remains to be seen, but I’m sure the prospect of Pats walking the halls of Holby City in a nurse’s uniform will be ample consolation for some…

Sadie King, you will be missed.