Emmerdale's Home Farm to become a 'funnier' place

Emmerdale's beleaguered Home Farm estate will become a 'funnier' place thanks to its new occupants, actor Jason Merrells has promised. His character Declan Macey soon takes over the reins at the posh house along with his ex-wife Ella Hart (Corinne Wicks), his daughter Mia (Sapphire Elia) and his dad Dermot (Frank Kelly). Jason told Inside Soap: "The intention is to really lighten the mood up there, as it's been so dark recently thanks to the Wyldes' murder storyline. Hopefully it'll be a lot funnier, too - that's certainly what all of the Macey family want it to be." He said he hoped the family would escape the 'curse' of Home Farm, which saw his predecessors, the Wylde family, crumble after Natasha murdered her bigamist husband Mark on the premises. Jason added that his character will set out to be a 'benevolent' lord of the manor, and will renovate the house to accommodate the needs of Jackson and Hazel following Jackson's devastating accident.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.