A PERFECT STORM

Designer DUNCAN HOWELL on creating this week’s village disaster

How do you create devastating winds on a mild summer day? And how do you trash a village without actually trashing it? These were the questions facing Duncan Howell, the designer tasked with bringing Emmerdale’s storm to life.

‘As any designer will do, I started by doing some research, then created some visuals, which I took to the producers,’ explains Duncan.

‘I said, “This is as far as we can go,” because you want it to look great but also keep it real.’

Filming this week’s epic scenes took around four weeks and involved the use of a dozen wind machines.

‘Some were gigantic – about 8ft by 6ft – and threw the wind way off into the trees,’ adds Duncan. ‘For close-ups, we had quieter machines that were like long tubes to blast the actors’ clothes and hair, and we threw in debris. You can get bags of leaves and straw from prop-hire companies.’