Guided tour behind set of famous TV village

As the Belfast Telegraph teams up with the cast of Emmerdale to launch a massive one-day charity extravaganza in Northern Ireland this summer, showbiz correspondent Maureen Coleman spends a day on the set of the award-winning ITV soap

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The last time he gave a guided tour of the village was in 2002 - and on that day, his VIP guest was none other than the Queen.

Her Jubilee soap trip was marked by a spectacular pyrotechnics stunt, which saw an explosion rip through the village post office - as various members of the cast looked on.

On the day we visit the set of Emmerdale - a freezing cold day in the Yorkshire Dales - there's no special effects and few signs of life in the fictional village.

Some miles away, in the heart of Leeds, filming is under way in the Emmerdale production centre, but on the external set, all is quiet as Timothy shows us around.

The Emmerdale producer explains that the soap used to be shot on location in a village in nearby Littondale, but in the late 1990s, a purpose-built set was erected on the Harewood Estate.

While most of the internal scenes are filmed back in the production centre in Leeds, all the external scenes are filmed here - from the cat fights outside the Woolpack to the idle gossiping outside Viv's post office.

It's slightly surreal being on set and wandering from Mill Cottage to Tall Trees to the village hall.

All the place names and landmarks are so familiar, one almost expects to see Eli Dingle tumbling out of the Woolpack door.

The external set resembles a proper village, complete with a churchyard full of headstones, the post office, the pub and Eric Pollard's antiques yard.

There's even the old red telephone box on the green, where Tricia Dingle made her last call before meeting her untimely death when the Woolpack collapsed in a storm.

But behind the building fronts it's a different story.

Step into the post office and it's a store room of some kind, while the Kings' office is an Aladdin's cave of make-up. And that most famous facade of all, the Woolpack, hides an empty shell.

Tim explains: "Most of the internal scenes are filmed back in Leeds, with the exception of a few.

"The bed and breakfast is here, as is Eric's house, the church and the village hall.

"But the interiors of the Dingles', Home Farm, the Woolpack, Mill Cottage, they're all in Leeds.

"Even though we have the biggest production centre in the UK there, we're still limited for space, so have to film some interiors here."

In the village church, I step onto Ashley's pulpit, where he delivers his sermons each week to a handful of worshippers. And in Paddy's surgery, there are cages of stuffed animals waiting to be treated by the cuddly vet.

But what I really want to do is serve up a pint in the world-renowned Woolie - so we head to the production centre to see the rest of the set.

Once back in Leeds, we're met by Christopher Villiers and Georgia Slowe, who play troubled couple Grayson and Perdy in the soap.

The pair offer to show us around and perhaps without noticing, slip into character as they guide us from the Dingle's homely kitchen to the plush interior of Home Farm.

"This is where Perdy's living now, since ditching me for Matthew King, the bitch!" spits Christopher. Or should that be Grayson?

In Mill Cottage, where the couple lived together in happier times, Grayson, sorry, Christopher, points out photographs of them both in their younger days, while showing me some of his artistic masterpieces on the wall.

"I've had one or two of them displayed in Bond Street," he tells me. I compliment him on his handiwork, before realising they're not actually his own pieces, but those of his character's.

Georgia and Christopher are as charming as Perdy and Grayson as they show us around the production set.

For a moment a hushed silence falls upon our little group as filming is about to take place and we are politely ushered to another part of the set.

Roxanne Pallett, who plays Jo Stiles, is shooting a scene with her boyfriend's father Jack Sugden, who is played by Clive Hornby. We don't stay to watch, but instead make our way to the Woolpack, where I've been dying to give Diane and Val a run for their money.

The Woolpack is empty. There's no Shadrach propping up the bar or Val downing copious gallons of Chardonnay while serving the regulars.

I try my hand at pint pulling but nothing comes out. And there I was believing that the barrels would be full to the brim with real beer.

We're then led away to meet more cast. Kelvin Fletcher, aka Andy Sugden, is relaxing upstairs, reading the Belfast Telegraph between takes. Kelvin is a regular visitor to Northern Ireland and was recently in the province for the wedding of Cinemagic boss Joan Burney, a friend of the young Emmerdale actor. We have a quick catch up before we meet actress Sammy Winward - Katie Sugden - who still looks gorgeous, despite being dosed with the cold.

Sammy's character is at the centre of a surrogacy storyline at the moment, but she can't divulge what happens next.

"To tell you the truth, I hardly know myself from one day to the next," she says.

Our set visit over, we join crew and cast members for a seasonal Christmas lunch in the canteen. Actresses Sally Oliver and Kelsey Beth Crossley, who play Lexie and Scarlett Nicholls, take a break from filming to get stuck into some turkey and stuffing. Then it's back to work for the next few hours.

As we leave, we're passed on a country road by Lucy Parteger (Chastity Dingle), racing towards Emmerdale in a zippy little Porsche.

It's a rare sight, I point out - a Dingle in a Porsche - but then Tim reminds me: "It's only a soap Maureen. She's not really a Dingle."