Emmerdale drops extras to create ‘village feel’

Published Wednesday 8 October 2008 at 16:30 by Matthew Hemley

Exclusive: Emmerdale bosses have axed more than 30 regular background artists from the ITV soap, claiming the decision is a creative one aimed at giving the series a “more realistic village feel”.

Producers have written to 31 of the series’ 113 regularly used extras - amounting to more than 25% - to tell them that their services are no longer required, despite the fact many of them have been appearing in the series since it began in 1972.

In the letter, the production team is understood to have said the reduction was necessary to make Emmerdale seem more realistic in terms of the faces and numbers of people seen in the background.

But the way the situation has been handled has been labelled “callous” by some of the walk-ons concerned, who say there was no discussion from any senior members of the production team with them about the cuts.

One, who did not want to be named but who has appeared in the soap for 15 years, said the letters had been sent only to those extras who had been hired directly by ITV Productions as opposed to through an agent. She labelled the decision a “bitter blow” at a time when work is already in short supply.

“They said it was only fair to give us advance warning that they were going to reduce the pool of walk-ons, but there was no advance warning. We got the letter and that was it - we’re not going to get any more work.”

She added: “It’s the shock of the way it has been done - so many people in one fell swoop and without any thought to what it means to people. For some, it is quite a lot of money to lose. And at a time like this when everyone is feeling the pinch, it’s a double blow.”

Equity spokesman Martin Brown said the union had requested “urgent discussions” with ITV Productions about the decision. He said the loss of work for artists who have been working on Emmerdale for years would be a “major blow” but added that ITV Productions had not breached its agreement with Equity or any contract with an individual walk-on.

He said the decision to only recruit extras from agencies would have ramifications. “ITV Productions needs to be clear that severely restricting the number of walk-ons recruited directly and moving to recruitment mainly through agencies means that almost all walk-ons working on Emmerdale in the future will be forced to pay an agency fee,” he said.

According to ITV, extras who were previously on ITV Productions’ books will be contacted as a priority when the soap is looking for extras to make up numbers in bigger crowd scenes.

In a statement to The Stage, ITV said: “It is the nature of production that there is a creative review from time to time.”