Emmerdale Village's 500th anniversary was a pivotal and historical episode for ITV soap opera Emmerdale. It first aired on 17 May 2007 on ITV1 in England and Wales, on UTV in Northern Ireland, STV in Scotland and on TV3 in the Republic of Ireland, simultaneously.
Contents
This was an hour long episode which was to bring to an end of the storyline, Who Killed Tom King? as the murderer was to finally break their silence. The episode was also to feature a much-loved character's life hang in the balance after a serious accident as well as very special appearance by operatic superstar Katherine Jenkins, appearing as herself to open the eventful village pageant. As the episode drew closer it was finally revealed that a village favourite would die unexpectedly.
Emmerdale Series Producer Kathleen Beedles signed off the much-anticipated reveal episode in which Tom King's killer would finally be uncovered.
Plot
At the courthouse the King boys, Jimmy, Matthew and Carl King, were waiting to stand trial for the murder of their father. As the investigation was developing it came to light that one or all three of Tom's sons killed him as they found fibres on the murder weapon that matched to what the boys were wearing the night Tom died. But since each of them got their suits from the same tailor, the police couldn't prove which one of them did it so they arrested them all in the hope that they would turn.
While waiting to be called Matthew kept on at older brother Jimmy trying to get him to confess. Matthew was convinced that his older brother was the murderer. When they took the stand and each had to enter their plea of "guilty, or not guilty" Matthew was once again angry at Jimmy for not confessing.
When the prosecution learned that Louise Appleton was involved in a car crash and that she admitted that she and fiance Hari Prasad where lying, they had no choice but to inform the court and after hearing this the judge decided that the prosecution no longer had sufficient evidence to warrant a trial and immediately dropped all charges against the brothers. Hari was paid by Rosemary King, the boys stepmother, to give false evidence against the boys. Hari had no choice as he had a heavy debt to pay. He convinced his girlfriend Louise that he really did hear something and she said she would lie for him, unknowing that he was already lying. As the trial drew closer Lousie started to see holes in Hari's story and confronted him on it. Hari viciously attacked Louise and chased her in his car when she got away and headed to the police station to confess. Louise lost control of the car and crashed.
DCI Grace Barraclough, the lead detective in the hunt for Tom King's killer, was outraged that the Kings where set free as she firmly believed that one, or all, of them killed their father.
The celebrations of the village's 500th anniversary was in full swing. The Dingles and the Hopes were trying to sabotage each other's floats and celebrity guest Katherine Jenkins found herself covered in champagne, thanks to first time bartender Jonny Foster, and was in need of a new outfit. Belle Dingle offered to fetch Katherine another dress – which happened to be Katie Sugden's. When Katie was getting ready for the beauty contest she found her dress was missing so Belle gave her another dress - which happened to be Jo Stiles's.
Jo walked into the dressing room to find love rival Katie wearing her dress and inevitably a dramatic cat fight ensued. Jo had stolen Katie's husband, Andy, from right under her nose.
Viv Hope was handed the trophy for best float by star guest Katherine. She smugly held up the award, basking in her triumph over the Dingles.
Inside the village hall, the party was in full swing and Sandy Thomas staggered back to his seat next to a sleeping Len Reynolds. However, the celebrations soon turned to mourning when Sandy realised Len wasn't dozing – he had died in his sleep.
At the hospital, Louise awoke to find Hari standing over her. “I've lost everything because of you,” he seethed.
“My job, my home. And all because you couldn't stick to what we agreed!” But Louise refused to take his abuse any longer. “You're a loser Hari. You failed with your racehorse and now you're pushing women around!” Hari lost his temper and tried to smother her. However, Louise managed to call for help and in the nick of time, a nurse and a doctor rushed into the room, but Hari knocked them both over, screaming: “This has nothing to do with you!” The doctor yelled for security, who wrestled the vicious vet to the floor and called the police.
Despite their relief, Matthew, Jimmy and Carl were far from ecstatic, with Matthew still wanting to know who killed his father. When they got to Home Farm, Matthew was still convinced Jimmy was guilty and demanded he admit it, once and for all. However, Jimmy continued to deny that it was him.
In a fit of rage, Matthew grabbed Jimmy and shoved him into a glass cabinet, threatening to push his face into the shards of broken glass if he didn't own up immediately. Believing it was his only way out, Jimmy said:
“Alright! I killed him.” Say it like you mean it!” raged Matthew. “I killed dad!” Jimmy cried. “He was always having a go, I couldn't take it anymore... all his putdowns, him always favouring you over me.” Matthew was incensed and shoved Jimmy onto the sofa, punching him repeatedly.
But at that moment a distraught Carl grabbed Matthew and cried out: “Stop it! Stop it, you've got the wrong one! It's me you should be hitting. I did it Matt, I killed dad!” His whole body shaking, the youngest King admitted that it was he who had killed their father.
Matthew was in disbelief that his younger brother was the killer. Matthew kept on at Carl wanting to know how and why he would do this, kill their father and let his brothers stand trial and possibly go to prison. To the surprise of Matthew, Jimmy jumped in and told him to leave Carl alone. Matthew couldn't believe Jimmy, but it didn't take the clever King long to realise that Jimmy knew Carl was the murderer.
Despite this Matthew demanded that Carl tell him every single thing that happened the night he killed their father. Carl told him what happened before he killed Tom. Carl revealed that he entered his father's room on Christmas night and that an argument had broken out. Tom repeatedly bad-mouthed Chas, Carl's beloved ex-girlfriend. Carl was furious that Tom had paid Chas to leave him and picked up a statuette and, on the spur of the moment, whacked him over the head with it. He then pushed his father away, sending him smashing through the window to his death. Carl emphasised that it wasn't premeditated and that he had just lashed out. Matthew was, obviously, far from understanding. He said that Tom destroyed his relationship with Sadie King, the love of his life, but he never went off and killed him.
Jimmy couldn't stand to be there anymore and just left, soon followed by Matthew, leaving a ruined Carl to be on his own.
Sandy had the unfortunate duty of going in search of Len's fiancé Pearl Ladderbanks and give her the bad news.
Len's body was moved on to the catwalk when police officer Donna Windsor-Dingle tried to resuscitate him, but to no avail. Pearl arrived at the village hall and asked to be alone with her beloved Len. “I had so many plans for our future. How could you leave me now?” she cried, resting her face against his. A tearful Betty and Edna stood by and comforted Pearl.
When Sandy came back in and said that Alan Turner should announce what has happened to the village, Pearl asked him not too and said, as she looked at her lifeless fiancé, "Leonard never liked to make a fuss." So outside, unbeknownst to everyone, the rest of the village where enjoying the festivities. Katherine Jenkins offered to close the pageant with a song, and performed Time To Say Goodbye.
As she sang we saw Hari sitting in a prison cell. We also saw each of the King brothers dealing with what has happened over the course of the day, Jimmy tried to get a glass of water but couldn't as his hand was shaking too much, Matthew sat alone in the office looking at the picture of himself, Tom and his three brothers, with a tear in his eye and finally a crushed Carl stayed in the sitting room. Finally an ambulance comes to collect Len's body Katherine is singing, it was a fitting farewell to a much loved member of the community. The rest of the villagers looked on in shock as the ambulance climbed the hill, taking their dear friend away.
Trivia
For this episode Emmerdale gained an average 8.6 million viewers, which peaked to 9.1 million viewers when Tom's son Carl confessed to the murder, between 7pm and 8pm. EastEnders could only manage 4 million between 7.30pm and 8pm.