An Emmerdale crew member has bid an emotional farewell to the Yorkshire Dales as they make the move to rival soap EastEnders. Writer Jack Deslandes, who has seen his name in the closing credits of Emmerdale 144 times, has shared his feelings about leaving the ITV soap.
"I've been at EastEnders for more than four months now so it's been slightly strange to see the Emmerdale episodes I was working on air from afar," Jack confessed in a heartfelt blog post.
Reflecting on some of the most iconic storylines he had been involved in, Jack then continued: "I got to write Vanessa's return and subsequent love triangle between her Mary and Suzy, Charles and Manpreet's engagement, Marlon and Rhona's struggles with baby Ivy, early tests in Dawn and Billy's relationship as new parents, and Matty and Amy's rocky road to marriage the soap's first trans wedding."
The writer then added: "There was a lot of romance in all of these stories but also moustache-twizzling villains, amorous deceit, and shifting games of thrones that stretched me as a twenty-something cis-straight white male to think about how we represent the lives of such a diverse set of characters."
"It was a journey. From struggling to write a six episode arc on day one to being given sixty scenes to polish up by the end of the day towards the end. I learnt how to write fast, how to pitch to that group of writers, who to pitch with, the different roles storyliners took in encouraging conversation in conferences and talk throughs, and what beats I needed to hit to make my producer happy.", reports Leeds Live.
One thing that truly stood out to Jack however, was the lifelong connections he had made on the show, as he told fans: " I made some great friends and grew confidence in my strengths in building stories. From a personal development point of view, it was one of the toughest jobs I've ever done but in leaving, one of the most rewarding."
Looking to the future and his move to rival soap EastEnders, Jack also confessed that his time on Emmerdale had helped him in his new role as he said: "My move to EastEnders has been made easier by the toolkit of skills and workflow techniques given to me at Emmerdale and although we're now rivals in not only ratings but also next month's BAFTAs, I only wish the team there well and hope there are many more moments of madness and mayhem down on t' farm."
