Jackie Merrick’s life hangs by a thread in this dramatic episode of Emmerdale Farm from 1985. Lying in a bloodied state in a hospital bed, the young man is in a bad way following an accident on his motorbike. His family face a long night waiting for news of his condition. With all the family occupied it’s up to Matt and Dolly to continue the farm work as the lambing won’t wait.

Elsewhere Alan Turner returns home wearing blood-soaked clothes to drown his sorrows as he comes to terms with the reality of the situation. As dawn arrives a clearly traumatised Alan admits to his secretary that he may have killed someone. Back at the hospital Jackie is in the operating theatre but complications arise and viewers are left wondering if he’ll make it through.

Created in 1972 by playwright Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale is a long running rural soap opera broadcast on ITV. Originally named Emmerdale Farm, it began as lunchtime drama concerned with the lives of the Sugden family who lived and worked on Emmerdale Farm. The programme later became Emmerdale in 1989 having expanded to include the nearby village with a large cast of varied characters. It continues to be broadcast on weekday evenings on ITV.

Please note this episode contains dramatised but realistic looking injury and scenes of surgery (not graphic).