The following is based on a profile
in the book "The Emmerdale Family Album" (by Michael Heatly and
Published by Boxtree Paperback - 30 June, 1995 ):-
SARAH CONNOLLY
Sarah Connolly first appeared in Emmerdale as a travelling librarian.
Very much the professional single woman, she was determined to enjoy
her free and easy lifestyle to the full with a host of friends of both
sexes and a refusal to be tied down. It was this sparky independence
that both attracted Jack Sugden and, when he couldn't change her. frustrated
him! For her part, Sarah herself was confused by the attraction of Jack,
who stood for a great many things she despised - commitment, exclusively'
and a quiet domestic life surrounded by an extended family.
Local opinion claimed that Sarah's attitude was -at least partly - responsible
for driving him back int the arms of his old flame Marian Wilks. Yet
on his return from Italy in 1989 for Jackie's funeral, it was Sarah he
sought as someone he could talk to rather
than stay with his family at the farm, She urged him to sort things
out once and for all with Marian, which he did - and after Marian refused
lo come to England with him he returned alone.
Sarah, meanwhile, continued to Iead her busy social life, but she and
Jack gradually saw more and more of each other. Alarm bells rang when
she insisted on going on her annual Christmas/New Year skiing holiday
with a group of friends including Gerry, a casual boyfriend, but on her
return Sarah surprised everybody including, perhaps, herself -when she
moved in with Jack.
At first she steadfastly clung on to her social li£c altogether
- and equally steadfastly refused to have anything to do with the farm.
She remained aloof from the Sugdens next door. She stopped Annie's habit
of wandering in through the connecting door by simply nailing it up,
declaring that she was used to living alone, not sharing a house with
Jack and Robert, never mind Annie, Joe, Kate, Mark, Rachel and Lucy the
dog!
The closure of the mobile library service in June 1990 represented a
major threat to Sarah's independence. She was predictably annoyed when
Jack went behind her back and offered her services to Amos and Witks
at the Woolpack, but at length accepted the part-time job with good grace
and also agreed to help out on the farm when the Sugdcns found themselves
shorthanded.
Drama struck after Chris and Kathy Tate's wedding in 1991 when Sarah
was kidnapped by Jim Latimer, a recently released murderer with a grudge
against Jack that dated back to the trial. He held her captive in a disused
building, but she reacted with characteristic good sense and the situation
was, happily, resolved peacefully.
Sarah involved herself in family matters with a will, tackling Mark about
his shoplifting and admitting that she had done the same herself, as
a teenager. She acquired local notoriety early 1992 by hosting a
'raunchy underwear party' which attracted the men as eagerly as the ladies,
while an outing to the dry ski slope at Skipdale that same year suggested
she hadn't given up hope of changing her man - even though Jack outperformed
her and she ended up twisting her ankle!
Jack and Sarah's relationship seemed as solid as most marriages, even
though she declined his ritual proposals of marriage delivered each year
on the anniversary of their meeting. Robert, Jack's child from his marriage
to Pat, came to regard Sarah as
a surrogate mother, and finally accepted her as Mum.
The birth of their daughter Victoria Anne, named after the child's
two grandmothers, in early 1994, seemed to set the seal on their relationship
which had survived the collapse of the original Emmerdale farmhouse
and
financial problems that had beset the farming operation during the
early-1990s depression. Though she hadn't seen herself as a farmer's
wife, Sarah
was finally married to Jack in May 1994, at the age of 42. Soon after,
they were brought even closer together when Victoria was taken seriously
ill with ahole in her heart. Thankfully, after a long stay in Leeds
hospital, she returned home, recovered.
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