It's murder in Soapland

Christmas came early at TV Today towers when a very exciting gift arrived from the windswept Yorkshire Dales – Emmerdale Cluedo. Brilliant!

To spice up the buzz about the impending Christmas Day offing of Tom King (played by soap legend Ken Farrington – he was Billy Walker in Corrie), the Emmerdale press office has sent out an Emmerdale branded set of Cluedo. To be fair, it’s just a standard box of Cluedo with a sticker on the front, detailing the suspects in the soap murder of the year, but it’s a nice touch. It’s definitely better than the bottle of brown sauce that EastEnders sent out to mark the arrival of the Miller family in Walford (I daren’t look at the sell-by-date, but it’s still sitting on the shelf above my desk, Keith Miller staring back at me).

Emmerdale is certainly pulling out all the stops for the death of Tom King and the subsequent search for his killer. Viewers can go interactive and help catch the killer by logging on to a special Emmerdale mini-site devoted to the investigation, where weekly rewards can be played for. It has a fun air, typifying Emmerdale’s overall tone when compared to some of its more po-faced competitors. And, even better, the investigation will be headed up by DCI Grace Barraclough, played by one of my first TV crushes, Glynis Barber!

But with yet another soap wedding set for the 25th, it does make me wonder why soap characters frequently insist on getting married on Christmas Day. In recent years we’ve had Kat and Alfie, Little Mo and Billy, and now a Family Affairs refugee and Tara King off of The Avengers.

It’s one of the most stressful parts of year at the best times, so why on earth would anybody want to compound that by getting married at the same time? It’s madness, not to mention incredibly selfish of the bride and groom towards their potential guests. It’s hard enough to please your family and friends over the festive period without having to think about weddings as well. Some people are just greedy.

Emmerdale is on Christmas Day at 7pm on ITV1.