It’s a case of “all change” in Emmerdale this weekend, as Victoria Sugden returns from a holiday in Spain. At least, she claims to be Victoria, and everybody recognises her — everyone except the audience…
In real life, Hannah Midgely, the original Victoria, has been replaced by Isobel Hodgins. But it’s not as if we can’t understand her father, Jack, taking this transformation in his stride. After all, he’s not only been through it with his son, Robert (played as a baby by Richard Smith, as a child by Christopher Smith, and from 2001 by Karl Davies — a transformation that also happened off-screen during a holiday in Spain. Must be something in the Sangria…), and his wife, Sarah (Madeleine Howard 1988-1994, Alyson Spiro 1994-2000) — but he’s had to put up with his own reflection changing: while Clive Hornby has played Jack since 1980, the character was originally played by Andrew Burt.
Of course, all soaps occasionally have to recast. Beyond the Sugdens, Emmerdale (back in the days when there was still a farm attached) changed Dolly Skilbeck from Katherine Barker to Jean Rogers (now a leading light in actors’ union Equity) in 1979; down Coronation Street way, the Tilsley/Platt children and Rosie and Sophie Webster have all changed. While in a way, it’s more understandable that child actors may end up being replaced, when there are so many other pressures on them, it’s the adult transformations that require the most extreme suspensions of disbelief. Quite why Dynasty required Steven Carrington to be involved in a fire, necessitating plastic surgery to allow a change of actors from Al Corley to Jack Coleman, when his sisters Fallon and Catherine changed overnight without, is a mystery; though none more so than, in a reunion miniseries, how the same character ended up looking just like Al Corley again…
At least Dynasty made the attempt to cast actors of a similar size and build to their predecessors. Quite the biggest — and most inexplicable — transformation is that of Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders. While Barbara Windsor has dominated the role for ten years, first appearing in 1996, the character had appeared briefly five years earlier, played by Jo Warne, a lady who physically is as different from our Babs as it’s possible to get. And thanks to the glories of YouTube, you can see what I mean:
