Emmerdale 1918 – First look pictures and everything you need to know! Starts tonight!

Emmerdale 1918

Emmerdale stars, including Mark Charnock (who'll feature in the first episode) and Charlotte Bellamy, look into a Yorkshire village at war in new primetime ITV documentary series, which starts tonight on ITV at 8.30pm

A century after the end of World War One some of the current and former stars of Emmerdale will feature in a new ITV documentary, Emmerdale 1918, which starts tonight on ITV at 8.30pm.

Emmerdale 1918 will see the actors look into the difficulties faced by those who lived in the Yorkshire village of Esholt 100 years ago.

ITV has released a picture of Emmerdale 1918 which shows Charlotte Bellamy, who plays Laurel Thomas in the ITV soap.

Emmerdale 1918

Charlotte will be seen in the documentary, which is part of ITV’s autumn line-up, examining letters written by the son of the pub landlord. Also on the show is Natalie J. Robb, who plays Moria Dingle, who discovers stories about Esholt’s Women’s Land Army volunteers.

Meanwhile, Mark Charnock, who plays Emmerdale chef Marlon Dingle, will examine the story of a real World War One chef, Fred Brocklehurst, who lived in the original Emmerdale village in the first episode of the series.

Emmerdale 1918 - Mark Charnock, who plays Marlon

Ready for action: Mark takes part in Emmerdale 1918

Mark, who hasn't had much real cooking experience, will suddenly finding himself preparing food for hungry troops.

Talking about the conditions Fred had to cook in on the front line, Mark told us: "The conditions were monstrous. There would have been dead bodies and explosions everywhere, gunfire, horribly injured men being carried past, rats and rain - and in the middle of it he was trying to cook for loads of men. He was cooking them stuff that would hopefully give them that little taste of home at the end of another horrifying day."

Mark has to make a special pudding for the finale event in World War One cooking conditions - how will he get on?

Emmerdale 1918, Mark Charnock cooking

How will Mark get on as a World War One Cook?

So, would Mark like Emmerdale to do an episode that flashes back to 1918?

"That would be fantastic! Can I have a big moustache please?"

Esholt is where Emmerdale’s outdoor scenes were filmed from 1976 to 1999. The six-part documentary also features Zoe Henry (Rhona Goskirk), Bhasker Patel (Rishi Sharma) and John Middleton (who played Ashley Thomas).

There will also be a fiction book accompanying the series, Christmas At Emmerdale, written by Pamela Bell. Its cover declares: “War has been declared, but the family feuds show no sign of ending in Britain’s favourite village.”

Emmerdale 1918 will be shown on ITV on Thursday 20th September at 8.30pm.

David Hollingsworth
Editor

David is the What To Watch Editor and has over 20 years of experience in television journalism. He is currently writing about the latest television and film news for What To Watch.


Before working for What To Watch, David spent many years working for TV Times magazine, interviewing some of television's most famous stars including Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland, singer Lionel Richie and wildlife legend Sir David Attenborough. 


David started out as a writer for TV Times before becoming the title's deputy features editor and then features editor. During his time on TV Times, David also helped run the annual TV Times Awards. David is a huge Death in Paradise fan, although he's still failed to solve a case before the show's detective! He also loves James Bond and controversially thinks that Timothy Dalton was an excellent 007.


Other than watching and writing about telly, David loves playing cricket, going to the cinema, trying to improve his tennis and chasing about after his kids!