With all the buzz and excitement today surrounding Emmerdale and its epic hour long live episode tonight to mark its 40th anniversary, we thought we would take a moment to recap over some of the amazing storylines the classic ITV soap has tackled in order to have kept it going up until this momentous occasion!

Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972, as Emmerdale Farm as it was back then.

Jacob had upset the family when he left the farm to his eldest son, Jack, who had not been seen since 1964, when at the age of 18 he left his family, heritage and Beckindale – for London.

Jack Sugden returned to the farm in this opening episode, although he chose to stay away from the funeral – making his presence known only after the service when the Sugdens returned to their home, Emmerdale Farm – where they found him waiting for them.

In subsequent months, Jack sold a share of the Farm to Annie, Joe, Peggy and his grandfather Sam Pearson. Emmerdale Farm Ltd was formed after Henry Wilks bought Sam’s share of the estate.

The show initially focussed on the Sugden family throughout its early reign, until the introduction of the Tate family, and their home, Home Farm, introducing the more upper-class, lady of the manner type of characters, bringing a class divide into the thick of things in almost an early Downton Abbey style.

From then the show tackled some of the most dynamic and impressive storylines and stunts, ranging from car crashes to plane crashes and lightning storms.

In more recent time the Yorkshire Dale based drama has seen characters and stories getting more and more gritty and sexy. The introduction of the Dingles in the 90′s injected the shows core with humour and controversy. At first frowned upon for their hillbilly ways, the nation soon learned to embrace the era of kissing cousins, and the family have now been cemented in the shows history as pioneers and legends.

Emmerdale has always successfully maintained several storylines at a time, imposing realistic time scales and conclusions, making it one of the most realistic soaps we have on our telly boxes. At present fans of the show have several on-going storylines to choose from, such as the custody battle between Rhona (Zoe Henry), Marlon (Mark Charnock) and Paddy (Dominic Brunt), the struggle for Amy (Chelsea Half-Penny) to reunite with her diabetic, alcoholic mum, the sibling rivalry between both Megan (Gaynor Faye) and Declan Macey (Jason Merelles) and Carl (Tom Lister) and Jimmy King (Nick Miles) all bubbling away nicely in the back ground, but all eyes will be focussed on the Cameron (Dominic Power), Chas (Lucy Pargeter) and Debbie (Charley Webb) love triangle in tonight’s live episode.

Fans of the show will know how Chas and Cameron have been being blackmailed by Carl after he found out that they had been having an affair. Keeping a picture he found on Chas’ phone, Carl has managed to get £30k out of the pair, but no sooner had he counted it; his real intentions became chillingly clear. It wasn’t the money he was interested in, or even revenge for Chas ripping him off in the first place, it was Chas.

Chas and Carl have endured a turbulent on/off relationship for the best part of a decade, and always seem to return to each other in the end. However with Chas marrying Dan (Liam Fox) Carl was forced to stoop to dangerously low levels to get his girl back by threatening to show Chas’ niece, and Cameron’s heavily pregnant fiancé, Debbie, the picture of them together unless she ditched Dan and ran away with him.

Last night saw Chas agreeing to the plan, only to go ahead and marry Dan, with the intention of running off into the sunset after saying ‘I do’ leaving Cameron to face the music alone.

Now that the show is 40 years old (it’s official birthday was yesterday) the cast and crew have decided to follow in the footsteps of Coronation Street and EastEnders by celebrating by giving the audience an hour long live instalment tonight as the conclusion of many of these storylines comes crashing to a conclusion, and we couldn’t be more excited.

The cast of Emmerdale are professional, dedicated actors, who not only shine through in their work, but away from the spotlight as well. Boasting the most impressive charitable record, as well as arguably putting in more hours than any other TV show in the entire country, they have a squeaky clean reputation meaning you are never likely to see an Emmerdale actor in the papers for the wrong reasons!

And so it is with all this in mind that we here at Unreality TV want to take a moment to wish the cast and crew the very best of luck tonight, and thank them for all their hard work and unwavering contributions to the Great British Soap!

And we aren’t the only ones who want to send best wishes. Digital Spy has released a collection of messages from other actors from the world of Soaps:

Tameka Empson (Kim Fox, EastEnders):

“Emmerdale actors, take a deep breath in, hold for four seconds, breathe out and just let it flow! If you mess up in the live episode, we won’t know – just let it flow. Be strong if you get it wrong, but before you’re wrong, just try and get it right! But if you can’t, be wrong and strong – that’s what I’d say! Good luck!”

Bronagh Waugh (Cheryl Brady, Hollyoaks):

“All of the people I know at Emmerdale are so wonderful. I think the beautiful thing about the cast on Emmerdale is that they’re very humble and they don’t take themselves too seriously. They’re very down-to-earth actors, and what’s apparent to me is that they’re a real team. As they’re such a lovely team together, I think that’s what will get them through the live episode.”

Jorgie Porter (Theresa McQueen, Hollyoaks):

“I absolutely love Emmerdale, especially as it got quite sexy! There was a point where everybody got a bit fit, and I love what they do with the farm and countryside setting. All of these crazy things happen to hot people in the country!”

Jessica Fox (Nancy Osborne, Hollyoaks):

“Congratulations to the cast and crew for the show’s 40th birthday. My advice for the live episode is try not to swear! Everything else will probably be fine!”

Claire Cooper (Jacqui Ashworth, Hollyoaks):

“The best of luck to Emmerdale’s cast and crew for their live ep! They’re a fantastic cast, who I know will give stunning performances. This is where TV and stage cross roads! Rock it guys, can’t wait to see it.”

Charlie Condou (Marcus Dent, Coronation Street):

“I missed the live episode that we did here at Corrie, but I’ve done a lot of theatre and I know it’s terrifying. It’s not as simple as turning up for a normal day of work, as live drama is a whole different kettle of fish. I wish them all the luck in the world and I’m glad that I’m not doing it!”

Alan Halsall (Tyrone Dobbs, Coronation Street):

“I’ve done two live episodes now and I absolutely loved them, so my advice to the Emmerdale cast would be to try and enjoy it! It might be ten years before they get to do it again. For me it was a challenge and everyone loves a challenge – that’s what we’re in the job for. They’ve got a great crew behind them at Emmerdale and the director Tony Prescott is absolutely amazing – he’s done both of our Coronation Street live episodes. They’re in safe hands so I hope they enjoy it!”

Craig Charles (Lloyd Mullaney, Coronation Street):

“Everyone’s going to be watching the live episode – it’s a major TV event. I love watching the live episodes, but I’ve got to be honest, you do watch just to see people mess up! I think the most disappointing thing about the Corrie live episode was that nobody made a mistake – it was so spot on. Good luck to the cast and crew.”

Emmett J. Scanlan (Brendan Brady, Hollyoaks):

“Emmerdale need to stand up and take a much deserved bow. I’ll be sitting down watching the live episode, and with the cast they’ve got and the production behind them that have made it one of the country’s most loved programmes, you just know they’re gonna smash it. Much love and respect to them all.”

Nick Pickard (Tony Hutchinson, Hollyoaks):

“Happy anniversary to everyone over at Emmerdale and best of luck for your live episode (don’t forget your lines!)”

Nicole Barber-Lane (Myra McQueen, Hollyoaks. In real life married to Emmerdale’s Liam Fox, who plays Dan):

“Happy 40th, good luck with the live ep – we’ll be watching. Do me proud Liam and I’ve got my eye on Chas – he’s already got one wife!”

Don’t’ miss Emmerdale Live at 7pm tonight on ITV1/ITV1 HD.