Death Comes To The Dales Trivia Quiz

Answer: Emma Barton

Did she fall or was she pushed? was the big storyline that followed the death of the village nurse.

Certainly, Emma had plenty of enemies, and with good cause. She was spiteful manipulative, and interfering.

It all started early when she tried to kill one of her three sons as a baby. She was also responsible for pushing her husband off a viaduct - the same location where she met her own demise.

Shortly before her death, she almost let her sister-in-law, Moria Barton, die in a farm fire, but saved her and delivered Moira's baby at the scene.

In the aftermath, she had a fight with Moria's son, Adam, and ran off clutching a shotgun, which went off, injuring her youngest son, Finn, who later died.

Emma Barton was played by Gillian Kearney between January 2015 and October 2017.

Emma's was the 120th death in the Yorkshire-based soap opera since it first aired in 1972.

Answer: Sharon Crossthwaite

The death of Sharon Crossthwaite was the first in the Yorkshire-based soap opera, at a time when it was called "Emmerdale Farm".

"Emmerdale Farm" was touted as the everyday story of farming folk in the Yorkshire dales. Initially it was very staid, befitting its mid-afternoon broadcast time. Later it was shifted to a 7pm evening slot, and many more adult hemes were introduced.

Sharon Crossthwaite was 28 when she was followed at the sheepdog trials by Jim Latimer, who tried to attack her. The attack was stopped by a homeless man, but Latimer caught up with Sharon again and raped and strangled her.

The homeless man was initially wrongly blamed for the death, but Latimer was arrested and jailed for life. He made a reappearance in the show some years later, but that's another story.

Sharon Crossthwaite made just four appearance in the show in January 1973. She was played by Louise Jameson, who went on to some well received television roles, including 'Doctor Who?', 'Tenko', 'EastEnders', 'Doc Martin', 'The Omega Factor' and 'Bergerac'.

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(1) Sam Skilbeck, Sally Skilbeck and Beattie Dowton in a car crash in January 1976.

Answer: Harry Mowlam

Harry Mowlam was not a nice man. He was a farmer as well as being a quarry owner.

He was also a convicted robber and made sexual advances on Dolly Skilbeck. That incident caused her mid-mannered husband, Matt to knock him down a river bank.

Eventually he fell foul of another local bad boy, Derek Warner, who killed him.

Harry Mowlam was played by Godfrey James between December 1983 and January 1986.

Incidentally, it is always curious that so many newspapers insist on talking about "police inquiries" when police forces maintain they carry out "enquiries".

Answer: Denis Rigg

Denis Rigg was a ruthless hot-shot businessman intent on expanding his empire among the farms and homes of the Dales.

He wanted to demolish half of the local village to make way for a quarry and schemed to buy out Emmerdale Farm.

The owner, Annie Sugden refused to sell, and Rigg then had a row with her son, Joe.

Joe was tending his prize bull at the time and it became enraged and gored Rigg to death.

Denis Rigg was played by Richard Franklin between August 1988 and July 1989.

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(2) Mark Hughes, Elizabeth Pollard, Archie Brooks and Leonard Kempinski, result of plane crashing on the village in December 1993

Answer: Donna Windsor

Donna Windsor arrived in Emmerdale as young girl when her family moved there from London.

She had notable narrow escapes from death or serious injury, including rescue from a burning barn; a fall from a tractor; and getting accidentally shot in the head with a ball bearing gun. Later, she was badly injured in a car crash.

After the breakdown of her marriage, Donna, by now a police officer, left the village on transfer to Essex.

Four years later, in 2014, she returned to the village with her four-year-old daughter in tow. It emerged the father was her former husband.

But Donna had come back to die. She had been diagnosed with cancer.

That did not prevent more dramatic storylines, including threats from a gangster club owner. To keep her family safe, she enticed him to the roof of the multi-storey car park. There, handcuffed to him, she jumped, taking both to their deaths.

Donna Windsor was played by Sophie Jeffrey from 1993 to1997 and by Verity Rushworth from 1998 to 2009 and again in 2014.

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(3) Shirley Turner, shot by Reg Dawson and then Reg Dawson shot by a police marksman in June 1994.

Answer: John Barton

John and Moria Barton and their three children took over a farm just outside the village in 2009.

They appeared to be an ordinary family, but with secrets (this is a soap opera we are talking about after all).

The biggest secret to be spilled was that their son Adam was not John's, but was the product of a brief affair between Mora and John's brother.

John and Moria tried to help their daughter Holly through her addiction to heroin.
John then had to face the truth of an affair between Moria and village bad-boy Cain Dingle. He became a suspect after Cain was found badly beaten by a roadside.

John and Moria reconciled and decided to go on holiday. As they drove, their Land-Rover hit black ice and left the road. Moria was rescued, but John was trapped inside as the Land-Rover slid over the edge of a cliff. John died later in hospital.

James Thornton played John Barton between July 2009 and February 2012.

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(4) Pete Collins, Patricia Holmes, Bob Simmons, and Butch Dingle, result of a bus crash in March 2000

Answer: Val Pollard

Val Pollard arrived in Emmerdale in 2004 as the sister of the owner of the Woolpack pub, Diane Blackstock.

Val was brassy and larger than life with a previous affair with Diane's husband Rodney Blackstock. She also had a son by Rodney, without him knowing it.

Val was a passionate woman and soon began a relationship with Eric Pollard, and they married.

It was a stormy-on-off relationship and in one "off" period, Val left him to go to Portugal, where she contracted HIV/AIDS.

They did reconcile and Val started a foundation to raise funds for HIV/Aids awareness.

In August 2015, Val and sister Diane were trapped in a hall of of mirrors in the village hall when a helicopter crashed down on top of them. Diane was rescued, but Val died when a shard of the mirror fall son her.

Val Pollard was played with Geordie gusto by Charlie Hardwick between February 2004 and August 2015.

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(5) Detective Constable Adrien Collins and Angie Reynolds, car crash in November 2002.

Answer: Jack Sugden

Emmerdale Farm" as its creator Kevin Laffin first named it, was built around the Sugden family.

They had worked the land around Emmerdale Farm for generations. The farm was just a short distance from the village of Beckindale - which was later to be renamed Emmerdale.

Jack had a rebellious streak and left the farm - and a pregnant girlfriend, Pat, in 1964 to go to London.

He returned in 1982 and married the girlfriend. They had another son together, Robert, soon after reconciling after Jack had an affair.

Pat died in a car crash, and Jack married librarian Sarah Connolly. They adopted a troubled boy, Andy.

All did not go well, Jack had an affair, then Sarah did in a fire started by Andy - who was to later shoot and injure Jack wth a shotgun.

Jack seemed to have settled down with a new wife, Diane Blackstock, but died of a heart attack while visiting his mother, Annie, in Spain.

Jack Sugden was played by Andrew Burt (1972-1973, 1976) and Clive Hornby (1980-1988, 1989-2008).

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(6) Noreen Bell, Noreen Bell, Dawn Woods, and David Brown, house collapse, July 2006

Answer: Archie Brookes

In one of the soap opera's most shocking storylines, four cast regulars were killed off when an aeroplane exploded overhead and wreckage crashed down on the village in December 1993.

The storyline was designed to shake up the show and replace some tired characters, but the parallels with the explosion that caused a Pan American 747 to crash onto the Scottish village of Lockerbie brought some criticism.

Archie Brookes was a bit of a shifty character. As a handyman, he was anything but handy and anything he worked on turned into a disaster.

On New Year's Eve 1993, he was walking home with friends from the local pub when the plane crashed and Archie was engulfed by a ball of flames.

Archie Brookes was played by Tony Pitts between November 1983 and December 1993.

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(7) Viv Hope and Terry Woods in a fire started by Nick Henshall, January 2011.

Answer: Max King

Max King was the youngest of the four King brothers. The older two and their father ran a haulage business.

The patriarch, Tom King, was a ruthless businessman and after Max started to work for the local vet's practice, Tom bullied him into poisoning some animals so he could get land a farmer had refused to sell.

He decided to lave the village and got a lift in a Land-Rover with Andy Sugden, who had just had a fight with his adopted brother, Robert. In a rage, Robert drove a car straight at the Land-Rover, Max pulled the steering wheel and the vehicle crashed into a wall and burst into flames.

Max King was played by Charlie Kemp between January 2005 and October 2005.

"Emmerdale" did not do just single deaths, there were multiple-death incidents:
(8) Val Pollard, Ruby Haswell and unnamed pilot when a helicopter crashed onto village hall, August 2015.