Seasons & episodes

It's the big day in Beckindale, the sale of Home Farm and the rest of NY Estates' holdings in the area. Jack is in a very good mood, which doesn't go unnoticed. Alan is tense before the auction and his mood isn't helped when Seth, Jock and Bill turn up at Home Farm.

Alan Turner and Joe Sugden are delighted to be the new owners of Home Farm. But there is tension between the workforce. Barry and Jock argue and Seth has to stop them from almost fighting.

Everyone is talking about Jack's romance with Barbara - but Annie is furious when he puts it before Jackie and Kathy's return from their honeymoon.

As Jackie and Kathy start to enjoy married life, Phil and Sandie find their relationship tough going. Matt is told that Crossgill Farm will be transferred into his name and he has to see his lawyer to get it transferred. Jock and Bill are offered a weeks work at Home Farm but are being considered for a full-time job by Alan. At The Woolpack, Amos is sceptical about the new nozzles for the beer pumps but when he is alone, he tests them. Annie confronts Jack about putting his love life with Barbara before his family. Jack is quite stubborn and will not stop seeing Barbara. He then goes off to tend to his crying son.

Matt and Dolly try to decide whether to stay at Emmerdale Farm - while Jack has thoughts of Barbara living there. And at Home Farm, Jock is accused of backstabbing by Barry, as Jock and Bill have been taken on full-time whereas Barry hasn't. Barry thinks Jock and Bill getting a weeks work at first was them sliming their way into getting a full-time job there. Barry then leaves, disgusted. Alan has some very important guests coming to Home Farm and they arrive in style. But Turner is not impressed by Seth and Bill embarrassing him by arriving in toff's clothing. Turner tells them to wait well away from the front of Home Farm. When Jack visits Barbara in Hotten, the play music and kiss passionately.

Ruth is riding Saint the stallion around a field. And it is love and war in Beckindale. Love proves difficult for both Jack and Joe but war proves all too easy for Amos and Henry in the battle of the beers. Joe takes his difficult love life out on Alan by shouting at him when Alan wants to discuss business. And Jack finds out that Barbara is still in love with another man, so they decide to end their relationship. Jack drives off into the night, content. Jack drives to Home Farm and has a brotherly chat with Joe about women.

Jock, Bill and Caroline all get the good news that they can have their jobs back permanently if they want them. Naturally they all accept. Annie's going to Hotten to visit a sick friend so Kathy offers to cook instead.

Kathy is still worried that she is not fitting in well at Emmerdale, and worries that Annie does not want her around.

Nick has been out all night. His mum Caroline is worried. Nick has stayed with Archie at his caravan. Alan berates Jock for being late with the Land Rover yesterday.

Sandie's relationship with Phil is about to change dramatically - today will confirm or deny her suspicions. Jock is fast becoming a liability at Home Farm as he is hungover.

A crisis at the fish farm brings Joe and Ruth closer together, but all it promises Jock is the sack. There is a blockage in one of the inlets at the fish farm. When Jock returns he realises it was his job to check the inlets. The blockage was caused by a dead animal. Ruth pulls the dead animal out of the inlet.

An increasingly depressed Jock mouths off at Turner in The Woolpack in front of Charles Douglas, a friend of Turner. Jock says it is not his fault what happened at the fish farm as no one showed him how to check the inlets for blockages.

It's the morning after the night before. Alan regrets what he did do, while Joe and Ruth regret what they didn't. Alan faces the wrath of his business partner Joe when Joe is angry at him for drink driving, and losing them a very important client.

Sandie's pregnancy is causing problems between her and Phil, when, suddenly, everything changes - and Beckindale is suddenly full of twitchers. Seth chats to one of the twitchers but gets no response. Amos is then inundated with customers at The Woolpack - the bird watchers. Kathy goes to the pub to help Amos out. Jackie thinks that they are not spending enough time together now they are married. Sandie tells Phil that she has had a miscarriage. Sandie then says that Phil should be pleased she lost the baby as he never wanted the baby. Phil accuses her of being sorry for herself.

Amos is determined not to be caught out twice by the bird-watchers. Also he is still worried that Henry is going to move to Italy, seeing as Seth saw Henry at the travel agents in Hotten earlier on.

Amos reveals the secret of his black stockings, while Jack comes from the library with a mystery, a romance - and a date! Joe has a plan to make him and Alan fast cash at Home Farm. As they need to pay off the mortgage, Joe plans on having acres of trees on Home Farm land felled. Joe takes Alan to the woodland where he announces his plan. Joe has called a surveyor called Stephen Fuller. Fuller arrives, and says that the trees are full of knots, and the previous owners did not take care of the trees. Alan walks off in a huff. Joe tells Fuller that Alan was the previous manager and Joe was his boss before they recently bought the place. Fuller admits he was a bit hasty with his remarks about the previous managers. Eric wants his old job back as the auctioneer at Hotten Market.

The only way Joe and Turner can stay in business is to cut down hundreds of beautiful trees - and Jack is determined to stop them. When he hears this, he leaves The Woolpack to see Joe. After Jack has gone, Stephen says to Sandie that they will be cutting down enough trees to make Jack really mad. Jack confronts Joe and says the trees belong to Beckindale but Joe says they are his now. Joe says that the cutting down and sale of these trees will keep Home Farm in business and will be beneficial to the community in the long run. Jack leaves in disgust. Jack also invites his new girlfriend Sarah Connolly round to Emmerdale.

Kathy doesn't want a job, while both Sandie and Eric do and Alan and Seth find themselves with not one job, but two. Annie says that Jack seems to be in a odd mood. Jack says it is due to Joe and Alan cutting down hundreds of trees to make money for Home Farm. Seth and Amos are embroiled in an allotment war, and said the sewage works go under Amos' allotment. The second of Seth and Alan's jobs is to help Alan and Bill repair the flood damage at the Bates house. But while doing the work, Alan breaks one of Caroline Bates's ornaments. Alan then starts to fall through the ceiling, but manages to grab the bannisters so only his legs go through the ceiling. He assures Caroline that he is quite alright. Jackie is stood watching and laughs.

Seth has left his onions at The Bates' house after helping with the repairs last night, and his chances of winning the Master Gardeners Competition are scuppered when Alan, Nick and Caroline eat the onions for their dinner.

Phil risks his relationship with Sandie when Eric persuades him to step the wrong side of the law. Sarah Connolly visits Jack at Emmerdale Farm. Having had his onions accidentally eaten, Seth wants to win The Master Gardeners Competition, and steals some flowers from Home Farm. He is seen by Nick who pretends to be Alan, and Seth starts to make his excuses, but he turns round and realises Nick is playing a prank on him. Seth lets him in on the secret. At the competition in The Woolpack, Seth is found out and exposed as a cheat. He plays innocent but everyone in the pub boos him and calls him a cheat.

Nick and Caroline are settling in well at Home Farm during their temporary stay there. Seth has been barred from The Woolpack due to cheating at the Master Gardeners Competition. Nick has high hopes of finding work when Alan fixes him an interview - while Sandie makes a frightening discovery about Phil and Eric. Eric has bought a £180 Victorian chest which Phil is doing up, maybe as a con to make money. Sandie tells Phil that she is on to him.

Nick and Caroline are eating Alan out of house and home during their stay at Home Farm. They agree to go Dutch. Joe has a bull delivered to Home Farm, and it seems to frighten Nick a bit. Sarah is getting fed up of Jack's arrogance and attitude, and his sly digs at her best pals. She tells him it is 1988 now and he needs to grow up. She then walks off. Ruth returns from a weekend in Ireland with her fiancé with some startling news for Joe. She says she has split from Liam for good. She says her and Joe can be together.

Suddenly, there's nothing to stop Joe and Ruth being together - but Sandie and Phil are being forced apart. Bill takes the bull to the market. Eric and Phil plan to make fast cash. He has bought a Victorian chest for £180, which Phil has made up to look Georgian so he can sell it for a profit and rip people off. Phil sells it for £2000. Eric gives Phil the money. Alan is facing his day in court over his drink driving incident but orders Seth to hurry up with the repairs at The Bates' house as he feels that Nick and Caroline are eating him out of house and home at Home Farm. Jack has ordered some tree trunks, so he can plant them and grown them into trees. Annie thinks Jack is reading too much into the tree felling at Home Farm.

Alan counts the cost of his brush with the law, while for Annie, of all people, crime apparently does pay! Sandie confronts Eric about him and Phil's dodgy antique fraud. She says she should expose him as a fraud and when he threatens her, she grabs him by the collar. He backs off.