ITV/Comp Emmerdale Insider Share By Carena Crawford Jul 23 2025 By Carena Crawford Jul 23 2025 I've been writing about the same plots in Emmerdale for months - from John Sugden to Joe Tate, the pace is all over the place - OPINION The pace of storytelling needs addressing Features John Sugden Moira Dingle Sarah Sugden Share By Carena Crawford Jul 23 2025 By Carena Crawford Jul 23 2025 Emmerdale needs a shake-up. Fast. Or it’s on a one way road to losing millions of viewers who, like me, are just fed-up. There, I said it, and I’m not sorry. Well, maybe I am a little bit sorry. Sorry that I feel I need to say it at all! Cain has been involved in many brilliant plots (Credit: ITV) Emmerdale on the up! As a huge soap fan for as long as I can remember I have always been very pleased I managed to turn something I loved into a job. Having written about soaps for 20-plus years, I have seen many ups and downs in the Dales storylines. It used to be a straight battle between EastEnders and Coronation Street, with Emmerdale and Hollyoaks bringing up the rear. But quietly, over a number of years, Emmerdale built itself up and became the soap to beat. It brought heart, humour and drama, and it put the villagers at its centre. It was a winning formula and I loved it. article continues below Read all the latest spoilers But now, something is, well, off. Something isn’t quite right. The show still has the brilliant characters, the high calibre of actors and actresses and the opportunities to succeed, but it’s just not working. Why? Joe’s window fall was recovered from in record time (Credit: ITV) ‘The pace of Emmerdale is the problem’ If you ask me it’s the pace of storytelling. I write about Emmerdale daily, yet I seem to be writing about the same thing over and over and over again. The stories just aren’t moving fast enough. Or sometimes they move so fast it’s farcical. Of course, the soap wants to reflect real life, but when you’ve got people stealing kidneys it’s not always at great pains to do that, is it?! As viewers we get the need to take some poetic licence and speed things up, but it seems totally off-kilter. For example: Joe Tate was pushed out of a window. The build-up promised a big whodunnit and scenes reminiscient of the great Who Killed Tom King storyline of 2006/7. Instead, we got Dawn being revealed as Joe’s attacker within one episode. Fine, we don’t need to be kept guessing. But suddenly they were back together and he was up and walking about having recovered from his broken pelvis in days. No physio. Not even painkillers. Nothing. It was John who killed Nate… accidentally, but still no one knows (Credit: ITV) Nate’s body reveal dragged on On the other hand, Nate’s body was found in February when Amy Barton fell under the icy lake. Then nothing. Her final words being Nate meant nothing because it was months before anyone was really bothered that Nate had disappeared and even more months before that body was found. We found out John Sugden was behind his death back in April, it’s now July and he still hasn’t been caught out. It’s fine to keep a serial killer around if he is doing something interesting like Meena Jutla did. But John’s not. He’s not killed anyone else, he’s just moping around being tortured over the things that he did. When Robert came back on his wedding day, the story finally got interesting. Yes, I thought, John’s time is finally up. But no, I was wrong. We’re still here with Robert being suspicious and John always seemingly one step ahead. When will it end? It looked like it would be this week with Robert investigating Owen’s death, but alas, next week’s spoilers reveal John is once again back in control. There is so much more to Kim than this (Credit: ITV) I’m struggling to care about Moira and Kim In other stories, I feel like we’ve been on this roundabout of ‘will Moira lose the farm?’ for months and months and months. Quite possibly years. I’m past caring, honestly. And with all this Kim Tate plotting business, every episode it seem like she’s talking about this plot without us actually having a clue what it is except to get more land and get more wealthy and powerful. So what? If there’s more to it, tell us because I’ve already lost interest. Kim and Moira are two characters I LOVE. But this storytelling? I do not. The horror of Ruby’s abuse was played out perfectly (Credit: ITV) The people are at the heart of Emmerdale Emmerdale needs to remember that at its heart are the people. The characters who populate the beloved village. Their stories, their emotions, that’s what we are interested in. It’s why Ruby’s abuse story was such a success – Beth Cordingly played it brilliantly and the story was timed out really well. Similarly with Eden Taylor-Draper as Belle Dingle when she was being abused by Tom King. The storyline had just enough beats to make sure we remained hooked and ended at exactly the right time. Earlier this week, Classic Emmerdale on ITV3 aired Len Reynolds’ death. He wasn’t a hugely impactful character, it didn’t really matter that he’d left the show, but his death was one of the most emotional episodes on record. There was no massive drama, no twists and turns – all of which have a good place in Emmerdale, of course, at the right time – it was just a simple, heartfelt loss. Show bosses would do well to revisit some of these Classic episodes to get some ideas about the pace of storytelling. Emmerdale remains one of the biggest shows on television and for it to stay that way, it needs fixing. Fast. Read more: Who’s leaving Emmerdale? All the cast exits, arrivals and returns Share Good to Know Share By Carena Crawford Jul 23 2025 By Carena Crawford Jul 23 2025
