Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has brought some “Order! Order!” to ITV’s Emmerdale by playing a cameo role in the hard-hitting TV soap.
Proud Lancastrian Sir Lindsay turned up in the fictional Yorkshire Dales village playing a rambler visiting its bar and bistro, wearing a tweed jacket and wellies.
Since the long-running soap first broadcast in 1972, its dramatic storylines have included more than 150 deaths, 100 weddings and a plane crash in the village.
But Sir Lindsay’s appearance, displaying the theatrical aplomb he employs in the Speaker’s chair, was much more low-key, complimenting the bistro’s proprietor on her Yorkshire tea.
It was also very brief. He headed into the bistro, paid for his cuppa and said: “It was a lovely cup of tea.” Then, told: “See you again,” he replied: “I hope so.” And that was that.
Soap fan Sir Lindsay visited Emmerdale set to mark its 10,000th episode in May last year, but the broadcasting of his visit was postponed because of the general election campaign.
Speaking before his cameo aired, he said: “Incredibly, Emmerdale has been on our screens for more than half a century, shining a light on the lived experience of others, entertaining viewers with its hard-hitting storylines, while also making a major economic contribution to the north.
“It has been an honour to help the cast celebrate the 10,000th episode of this enduring Yorkshire-based soap, with a visit to the Woolpack.”
And he added, tongue-in-cheek: “As a Lancastrian, I’m hugely impressed by the talent and warmth of our friends on the other side of the Pennines.”
Sir Lindsay is not the first senior politician to appear in a top TV soap, however.
In 2009, when he was London mayor, Boris Johnson turned up in Albert Square in a storyline that saw Barbara Windsor’s character Peggy Mitchell decide to stand as a local election candidate.
The scene for his arrival was set with an irate Peggy declaring she would “give him a piece of her mind” if she ever clapped eyes on him.
Lo and behold, a “bicycle puncture” saw Mr Johnson appear at the Queen Vic, briefly propping up the bar to deliver four brief lines, starting with: “Oh please, call me Boris.”
As Peggy said she nearly became involved in politics herself, Mr Johnson replied: “If you have any ideas for how I could help Walford, here’s my card.”
But the soap of choice for prime minister down the years has been Coronation Street, visited by Baroness Thatcher 1990 and Tony Blair in 2005.
During a Commons debate on Corrie’s 60th anniversary in 2020, culture minister John Whittingdale, who was her political secretary before becoming an MP, recalled Maggie’s visit.
“I too have twice visited the set of Coronation Street,” he told MPs. “The first time I did so was actually with Baroness Thatcher in January 1990 and it was indeed the case that I had to brief her on the way to the set on the characters who were stars at that particular time.
“And I did indeed go through all the various storylines and she was particularly keen to visit Alf Roberts’ corner shop, because of course, her own father was Alfred Roberts who ran the grocer’s shop in Grantham.”
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But the most bizarre link between a top politician and a TV soap came in 1998 when Mr Blair intervened in a Coronation Street storyline, pleading for the release of Deirdre Barlow after she was convicted of a crime she did not commit.
Deirdre, a stalwart of the cobbles played by Anne Kirkbride, was jailed for mortgage and credit card fraud while her conman lover Jon Lindsay walked free.
After newspapers launched campaigns to free her, the prime minister joined in, announcing he would order the home secretary Jack Straw to investigate Deirdre’s case.
Sir Lindsay’s appearance in Emmerdale was far less controversial.