An Emmerdale superfan who has a museum’s worth of merchandise from the soap has admitted his dream is to be cast as an extra.
Steve Marshall, 47, has loved the ITV soap since he was seven when he visited the original Emmerdale sets at Leathley and Esholt, and he has ended up becoming duty manager at the Emmerdale Village Tour in Leeds. All he wants now is a little part in the show that is so special for him.
“Everybody always asks me, but I would love to just be an extra in Emmerdale,” he said.
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Steve has given more than 1,000 guided tours of the village so far – getting out of bed at 3.45am on Saturdays to do them after working in commercial strategy elsewhere all week. Despite the seriously early starts, Steve said he “wouldn’t have it any other way” as he adores doing it.
(Image: PA)
“I think the fact that I’ve done this for years is hopefully testament to the fact that I love it, but I also want to make sure that it’s magical for our guests who come on the tour as well,” he said.
“From the very first moment I ever drove down that access road into that village, the one word that stuck in my mind was surreal,” he told PA Real Life. “Emmerdale has a fantastic ability to take a story, tell that story and the audience invests in it. There’s something for everybody… and you can actually turn that from the screen into reality because you can come and experience the village for yourself.”
(Image: PA)
Steve, who is from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, is a member of the Official Emmerdale Fan Club too and over the years he has collected an impressive haul of soap memorabilia, amounting to “thousands” of items. His collection includes Emmerdale street signs, kitchenware, scripts and a coffin plaque for the character Harriet Finch. He even has some postcards from Emmerdale’s Post Office.
“I have a collection that could rival a small museum,” he said. “Literally, I could have my own bookshop, but I’ve got everything from magazines to teapots, kitchenware, replica models of some of the properties in the village, pictures, autographs and things that have appeared in the show. I’ve got posters that might have appeared around the set when a character went missing, and I’ve even got props that have appeared on set.”
(Image: PA)
The superfan has had some special moments showing people the town in the Dales, with highlights including seeing people pop the question or marking big birthdays and anniversaries. “People are celebrating milestones, and doing that in a place like Emmerdale is magical,” he explained.
Steve also represented Emmerdale fans at the funeral of Alan Turner actor Richard Thorp and attended a private memorial for Zak Dingle actor Steve Halliwell. “These moments meant the world to me,” he said.
“When you put your mind to it and think, could I have a connection somehow with that programme, it’s surprising (what can happen),” he said of his own link to Emmerdale. “Pursue your dream and it can all come true.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
