Emmerdale has a knack for killing off the wrong characters.
It’s never the ones you want to die, the ones who need to die, who actually die.
Instead there are five examples of Emmerdale characters who had no business being killed off by bosses of the ITV soap.
Viv Hope
The most enraging soap death of all time – bar none.
Emmerdale bosses in 2011 made the catastrophic mistake of killing off miniskirt aficionado and businesswoman Viv Hope.
Actress Deena Payne only wanted a break – but they decided to kill her off in a deeply unsatisfying way.
Read more: OPINION: Emmerdale: ‘Victoria’s behaviour is as bad as Meena’s – kill her off!’
There was no drama, no intrigue, not even a sound.
Viv met her end after falling asleep drunk on her sofa while a fire filled her house.
She didn’t even get a funeral.
Shame on Emmerdale.
Tricia Dingle
Ditzy, flirty and a right laugh – Tricia lit up the dales for the six years she was there.
She had her uncle Alan wrapped round her finger, a war with Bernice Blackstock and a mud fight with Mandy Dingle.
A true all-rounder.
However that all came to an end when a lightning storm struck.
The first bolt hit a tree and sent her stumbling back, and then the next bolt knocked a window out of the Woolpack which promptly crushed her.
And to think she was on her way out of the village anyway. Would it have killed them to put her on a bus instead?
Donna Windsor
After soap bosses killed off her mother, Donna Windsor was on borrowed time.
And despite leaving the village – she was brought back just to die.
Hiding an advanced lung cancer diagnosis, Donna lasted just five months into her 2014 comeback.
Die she did – as a hero, killing a very dodgy gangster who had threatened her daughter April’s life.
Handcuffed to him, she threw herself off a building taking him with her, ensuring April would grow up happy and healthy.
However it put an end to Donna in the village – and all the history of the Windsors.
Val Pollard
Val Pollard was a rare soap character who was louder than life but generous of heart.
A nightmare to some, she was kind and protective towards those she loved – and came out with some of the best lines in the Dales.
Her final words: “Come on then do your worst, I’m not frightened of you.
“I’m H.I.Val. I’m Valerie Pollard of the Valerie Pollard Foundation. I’m Val.”
She was talking to a mirror.
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As soap deaths go, Val’s is one of the campest – being decapitated by a falling shard of a funhouse mirror – but it’s still wrong.
And the soap bosses know it. Of all Emmerdale characters to bump off… WHY?
They even brought her back for a post-dead Christmas appearance where she followed a hallucinating Robert Sugden around the village.
Now with her sister Diane leaving and Eric stuck with dreary Brenda Walker, the fabulousness really has left the village.
Graham Foster
It was the biggest misstep in recent Emmerdale history to kill off Graham Foster.
He was the international man of mystery and frequent alcoholic who was capable of unnerving Kim Tate.
There is not a single reason he could not have run off to rejoin his surrogate son Joe Tate for a lovely life abroad.
Instead he was killed by girlfriend Rhona Goskirk’s rapist ex-husband Pierce Harris in a truly awful whodunnit storyline.
Which Emmerdale characters do you miss the most? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know!