| Ian Sharrock came to Emmerdale Farm as Pat Merrick's
son Jackie. Pat was later to marry Jack Sugden. Jack was Jackie's natural
father. |
| Ian had acted since childhood, appearing in the
film Candleshoe at the age of 12 and the title role of
Smike a year later. |
Alison Dowling & Ian Sharrock |
Jackie's girlfriends included, Jane Hardcastle (Alison Dowling),
Maggie (Jacqueline Reddin), Angie Richards (Beverley Callard, who later
played Liz MacDonald in Coronation St.), Alison Caswell (Juile Brennan)
and Sita Sharma (Mamta Kash). |
Jacqueline Reddin |
| Jackie, nursing the wounds of his broken
relationship with Alison caswell, sought consolation by buying himself a
motorbike. He had a horrific crash in which Alan Turner accidentally
knocked him down in his NY Estates Range Rover on a dark country lane and
Jackie ended up in hospital for five months with broken
bones. |
Mamta and Ian |
It
was there that Jackie met and fell for nurse Sita Sharma. During his early
days there, as his life hung in the balance, he reconciled his differences
with Jack, calling him 'Dad' for the first time. Having spent time
contemplating his life and future, he returned home a wiser man. But,
although he and Sita became engaged, she ended the relationship after he
started to pressurise her. |
Clive Hornby
|
| Five years after his arrival in Emmerdale Farm as
Jackie Merrick, and leaving a string of broken hearts on screen and stacks
of mail from female fans off screen, actor Ian Sharrock married Pam
McDonald, who worked in Yorkshire Television's promotions and publicity
department. The wedding, at Leeds's Roman Catholic cathedral, which
attracted more than 4,000 Emmerdale fans, came shortly after the on-screen
motorcycle accident that left Jackie in hospital. It was so difficult to
get Ian out of the plaster cast specially made for the hospital scenes -
filmed on location - that he had to stay there while other members of the
cast went for lunch at a local pub. |
| In 1986 Jackie shared a cottage in Demdyke Row with
Joe Sugden. Unable to get on with Joe, Jackie moved back into Emmerdale
Farm and began a romance with Kathy Bates. |
| Jackie and Kathy's stormy relationship was
threatened by smooth~talknig NY Estates trainee manager Tony Marchant
(Mark Payton). When his interest in Kathy led Jackie to vandalise Tony's
van, Kathy realised Jackie's true feelings and the couple became engaged.
Events took a turn for the worse when Jackie fell down a mine shaft, while
trying to rescue a sheep. Fortunately, he survived the freezing conditions
and was rescued. Back at The Woolpack, Kathy found herself managing the
pub with her mother when Amos Brearly and Henry Wilks went on holiday.
|
| Jackie Merrick and Kathy Bates finally made it to
the altar at St Mary's Church, Beckindale, on 3 February 1988. But the
event did not go without a hiccup. A burst water tank at her mother's
cottage caused a flood that ruined Kathy's wedding dress. Annie Sugden
saved the day by lending Kathy the beautiful Edwardian gown in which she
had married her late husband, Jacob, 43 years earlier, and Kathy walked
down the aisle with a beaming smile. Her father, Malcolm, gave her away.
|
Jackie and Kathy
 |
Following her wedding to Jackie, Kathy had been
looking forward to 1989. But it proved to be the most unhappy
year of her life. First she suffered a miscarriage after contracting
chiamydiapsittaci- a rare virus from a sheep she was tending while
working at Emmerdale Farm. Then in August, she heard the tragic
news that Jackie had accidentally shot himself dead while hunting
a fox for a £10 bet. |
|
| After returning from their honeymoon in Tunisia,
Kathy and Jackle lived in the attic at Emmerdale Farm before moving into
their own cottage at 3 Demdyke Row in December. |
| Following her wedding to Jackie, Kathy had been
looking forward to 1989. But it proved to be the most unhappy year of her
life. First she suffered a miscarriage after contracting
chiamydiapsittaci- a rare virus from a sheep she was tending while working
at Emmerdale Farm. Then in August, she heard the tragic news that Jackie
had accidentally shot himself dead while hunting a fox for a £10
bet. |
| After leaving the show, Ian has appeared in many
T.V. programmes including the thriller, In The Name Of Love, alongside
Tara Fitzgerald as DC Campling, and as Jed Maxwell, the obsessed fan of
Steve Coogan's, Alan Partridge.
Ian now works as a salesman for furniture company MFI in
Chelmsford. |
 |
