Monday 18 November 2019

Weekend Summary #29 - Emmerdale Studio Tour, Lush Purchases & Our First Five Guys

It's been a little while again since my last weekend summary and as last weekend we had a bit of a busy one, it seemed like another good one to share. I don't do these posts that often but they're always some of my favourites to look back on. The reason I wanted to talk about last weekend was because George and I went to the Emmerdale Studio Tour! Now, if you're not a big fan of the soaps, this post probably won't mean much to you so I won't be offended if you leave now, but for those of you who are a bit addicted to them like me, I hope this is fun to read. Whilst for a long time Emmerdale was never on the same level as Corrie or Eastenders for me, though I still watched it, over the last few years I've actually become a really big fan. Some of the storylines have been incredible recently and I think some of the actors are brilliant, so it's now the one I look forward to the most. If you've been reading my blog for a long time you might remember George and I actually went to the original Coronation Street tour before they demolished the set and re-built it elsewhere and that was so much fun, so once I heard there was one for Emmerdale now, I knew we had to go one day.
Emmerdale cast board
There were two tours to choose from, either the studio tour which allows you to see working and replica sets, get an insight into how the storylines are created, a look at costumes and loads more, and then there is the village tour which shows you the outside set so you see exteriors of places like the Woolpack, Village Hall and more. Whilst I'd love to see the outside set one day, this time we went for the Studio Tour. We had a lovely tour guide who took our group round for 2 hours showing us all sorts of things that you just never know about when watching an episode on TV.
Emmerdale bafta
After an initial welcome video from the famous Val, and a look at some of the awards Emmerdale has won over the years aswell as the cast wall (fun fact, they've had to cover the photos with glass as Cain's photo has been stolen 4 times! There were lots of older women in our group talking about how much they love a bad boy which was certainly an experience) we started off at Beauty and Bernice and this was particularly interesting as this is where we were shown how the lighting works. As the sets are inside they obviously don't have natural light but the trickery that goes on is so clever. It's been so interesting to watch episodes since knowing how they create things in certain rooms. We then got to see the Dingles and there's the chance for you to get your photo taken professionally on the sofa which some people really got into!
collage - Beauty and Bernice, The Dingles
Next up we got to see Rhona's living room, and there was also an area with a shrine to Ashley Thomas which was a little crazy and here we also got to edit a clip of an episode ourselves. I actually think ours was pretty good! That's one thing I think the Emmerdale tour has over the previous Corrie tour, in that it was much more interactive and you had more chance to roam around yourself and take photos. After this, we saw the Cafe and this then led onto the prison and the hospital. Up until this point all the sets had been replicas but both of these are 'real' and filmed in and some rooms were still set up as they'd been filming not long before.
Rhona's house, Emmerdale
The Cafe, Emmerdale
After photos in The Woolpack, you then get a shuttle bus down to the ITV Television Centre. An array of shows have been produced in this studio from Where The Heart Is to My Parents Are Aliens, Heartbeat and Calendar. It's even acted as the main entrance to Hotten General in Emmerdale so this was a really interesting part of the tour. This is also the place they do film each week so here we got to see real life sets that had been used just days before. Some that were available to view (some were currently being dressed for Christmas and a few other things) were Moira and Cain's home which is surprisingly small, it's crazy how much bigger all of the sets look on the TV, Tracy & Vanessa's, and finally Robert and Aarons #robron. After a look at some of the props that have been used in some major scenes over the years, we were whizzed back to the first studio and had chance to check out the model village and gift shop before leaving. I do love a gift shop.
collage - The Woolpack, Emmerdale
Cain and Moira's, Emmerdale
Aaron and Roberts, Emmerdale
Overall, the Emmerdale Studio Tour was a brilliant experience and a great way to start our day together. The tours are 2 hours long so if you wanted to you could drive to the location of the outside set and get both done in one day. Both have to be booked onto separately though and prices are £32.50 each for the studio tour, and £34 each for the village tour so that's something to think about beforehand. If you're a soap fan though, it's so worth doing. I learnt so much about what goes into each episode and I have so much more respect for anyone that works behind the scenes! It's just fascinating to watch now knowing some of the secrets. I'd really like to do the new Corrie tour at some point now just to see what's different there now and see how that compares to this.
Emmerdale model village
After the tour, we headed to White Rose Shopping Centre, where despite numerous trips to Leeds over the years we'd never been to before. It was pure Christmas. So many places were already fulled decorated, there were beautiful lights hanging and look at this adorable display!
Christmas display, White Rose Leeds
We tried our first Five Guys finally which was insane. The amount of chips pleased me greatly. Can you ever have too many? I don't think so. And we got a little bit of Christmas shopping done. I treated myself to a few bits from Lush for the first time in forever, it's usually far too busy and I just can't deal with everyone wanting to help, which I get is their job but it's full on when you have anxiety. Luckily we were left to it this time which made it SO much more enjoyable. Though I could have spent loads in there, I was pretty restrained and just bought the Snow Fairy Bath Bomb and a mini bottle of Snow Fairy shower gel. It's been so long since I last bought it and I've fallen for it all over again.
Five Guys, White Rose Leeds
Lush Store, Leeds
After a festive Costa - their menu is amazing at the moment, we headed to pick Bear up from daycare and then it was an evening of curry, Strictly and a film. It was such a lovely weekend and I'm so glad we decided on going to the Emmerdale tour, it's honestly perfect for any soap fan! Have you been on either the Coronation Street or Emmerdale tour?

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4 comments

Lady Writes said...

Oh wow I've always wanted to do the Emmerdale tour!! x

jennyinneverland said...

I don't watch Emmerdale but I bet this is a great experience for fans of the show! I've never had a Five Guys! x

Jenny
http://www.jennyinneverland.com

Heather Nixon said...

My mum would love to go on an emmerdale tour x

Sophie said...

I don' watch Emmerdale but this sounds like a great experience for fans! I've never had a Five Guys either! x

Sophie
www.glowsteady.co.uk

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