User:JuneGloom07/Live

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"Emmerdale Live" is a live episode of the British television soap opera Emmerdale, broadcast on ITV1 on 17 October 2012. The episode was commissioned as part of the show's 40th anniversary celebrations, and was the first Emmerdale episode to be broadcast live. It was the series' 6372nd episode, and was written by Paul Roundell, directed by Tony Prescott and produced by Stuart Blackburn.

Announcement and conception
In December 2011, series producer Stuart Blackburn revealed that "big plans" were being made for Emmerdale's 40th anniversary, along the same lines as fellow British soap opera, Coronation Street's 2010 tram crash storyline. Blackburn explained "What Corrie did with the tram crash was amazing - but we want to do something as big but very different." The producer refused to rule out filming a live episode for the anniversary, saying "That would be amazing." The following year, Blackburn stated that the week, in which the 40th anniversary fell, would see a "real celebration of everything that's great about Emmerdale", as well as "weeks and months of betrayal, lies, deceit and blackmail" coming to a head.

On 1 May 2012, Daniel Kilkelly and Tom Mansell from Digital Spy confirmed that Emmerdale would broadcast a live episode for the anniversary. A spokesperson for the show commented "In celebration of its 40th birthday, Emmerdale will be going live for the first time for an episode in October. Series producer Stuart Blackburn has already confirmed that the anniversary will be a week long celebration of 'must see TV featuring two weddings, one of which will be the most unexpected we have ever seen, plus the birth of two babies'." It was later revealed that a death would take place during the live episode. The broadcast date for the live episode was set for 17 October 2012, with the shoot taking place on location at the Emmerdale village set in the Yorkshire Dales. It was also confirmed that the hour long episode would be followed by a live "aftermath" programme hosted by Stephen Mulhern on ITV2.

In the development stages there had been six different versions of the script.

Cast
A total of sixty-one cast members were involved in live episode and also on-set were four new-born babies. Elizabeth Estensen who plays Diane Sugden, told Alison Graves from My Weekly that "everybody" would be involved and it was a "lovely" opportunity for the entire cast to work together. She added that they shared "nerves, apprehension and excitement" because a live show is a "very brave thing to do".

Two of the new born babies used were twins Max and Louis Webster, the latter who played the character of Jack Sugden in scenes which Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb) gives birth. Sue Francis from the Kreative Talent Agency told the Evening Gazette's Laura Woodcock that Emmerdale had approached her to find babies for the episode. Francis was going to post an advertisement on social networking site Facebook, but she met Kerry Webster and her twin babies at the doctors the following day. Webster agreed and Max and Louis were given screen tests and on the night the production team decided to use Louis during the filming of the episode.

Rehearsals
On 3 October 2012, a reporter for the Press Association revealed that rehearsals had started for the live episode. The Emmerdale cast and crew spent eleven nights rehearsing until 1:00 am and there were 110 hours of rehearsals in total.

Filming
Twenty-seven cameras were used during the filming of the episode. There were seventy crew members present, which was twice as many compared to the taping of a normal episode. There were thirty costume crew and twenty-three make-up artists, but only one stunt coordinator was required as the cast carried out their own stunts. In addition to this there was twenty-six prop assistants who also had seven wedding dresses on standby.

Gambling
On 4 October 2012, David Brown of Radio Times announced that gambling firm Ladbrokes had released betting odds data on the character who would die during "Emmerdale Live". The early favourite to be killed was the long-standing character of Alan Turner (Richard Thorp) with odds at 3/1. Next was Carl King (Tom Lister) with 4/1 and in joint place Betty Eagleton (Paula Tilbrook) and Cameron Murray (Dominic Power) with odds of 5/1. Clear outsiders were Debbie Dingle, Jimmy King (Nick Miles), Megan Macey (Gaynor Faye) and Charity Tate (Emma Atkins) all sharing 25/1. Four days later Craig Kemp from Ladbrokes released a statement revealing that Carl had overtaken Alan as the favourite to be killed pulling odds at 1/2. While odds on Cameron had changed from 5/1 to 8/1. Also in the running was the child character of Sarah Sugden (Sophia Moore) with odds of 6/1 then 8/1. Kemp stated that Sarah was an obvious candidate due to her illness, but warned that it would be "far-fetched" to kill a child live on air. He did not think the elderly characters Alan and Betty would die. He noted that the character of Len Reynolds (Peter Martin) had been killed during a special episode and it risked being similar. One day prior to "Emmerdale Live" Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes announced that Carl was still the favourite. With odds at 1/2 she added "Carl's the king of evil but the money suggests he’s going to be brutally dethroned on Wednesday night."

Ratings
"Emmerdale Live" was watched by a cumulative audience of 9.2 million. Its original screening averaged 8.84 million viewers, attaining a 40.0% audience share. Although the episode peaked at 9.15 million during the scenes in which Carl was murdered. An additional 374 thousand viewers watched the time shift episode on ITV+1. The "aftermath" show titled, Emmerdale Live: The Fallout took 1.59 million viewers on ITV2 and 218 thousand during the time shift edition.

Polls
A variety of polls have been created around the episode. Polls to determine the identity of the "Emmerdale Live" fatality saw Carl a clear favourite with 47.51% in a poll ran by Radio Times, while he also topped polls ran by Digital Spy and MSN. MSN also asked their readership to chose theit favourite live episode from a soap opera. "Emmerdale Live" was the popular choice with more than double the percentage of rivals "Coronation Street Live" and "EastEnders Live".

Critical response
Rachel Ward from The Daily Telegraph said that "Emmerdale Live" was "flawless". They noted that Paula Tilbrook was the only one to stumble her lines, but defended her because she had to shout over music. She noted that "much needed humour and light relief from all that violence" of Carl's murder was provided by the two birth scenes involving Debbie and Gennie Walker (Sian Reese-Williams). They added that it was "all very over-the-top" and the "minor characters giving stagey performances". Though they were impressed with Lister and Pargeter's work because it aided a slow build-up of tension to Carl's death scene. Laura-Jayne Tyler from Inside Soap said that "Emmerdale's 40th birthday went off with a bang, as the cast and crew delivered a brilliant hour-long live episode."

Accolades
"Emmerdale Live" won Best Episode at the 2013 British Soap Awards and went on to win the Outstanding Achievement accolade at the Inside Soap Awards. It was also nominated for Best Episode at the 2013 All About Soap Awards and for TV Moment of the Year at the Virgin Media Awards.