Mike Long was the set designer for Emmerdale for many years, and he designed the Purpose Built "village" on the Harewood Estate in 1996, 1 year before construction began.
For many years since the show began Mike had worked as the series set designer.
Pre Emmerdale career[]
Emmerdale (1972-2000)[]
Mike Long worked as a set designer in the early years of the show and is credited in several 1972-1974 episodes.
However his biggest project was being in charge of the design of the purpose built replica of Esholt in the mid 1990s. In 1995, plans were put forward for a new Emmerdale Village set. ITV's other soap w:c:emmerdale:Coronation Street had built its first outdoor set in the late 1960s and another one in the early 1980s. In 1989 w:c:emmerdale:Tim Fee had visions of building a purpose built set for Emmerdale. This was to become a reality 7 years later.
In early 1996, Mike Long designed the new "Emmerdale Village". His brief from w:c:emmerdale:Mervyn Watson, the then producer of the show was to make it look more like a Dales village while keeping the shape and feel the same as Esholt. This meant the brickwork was to be built out of Yorkshire Dales stone instead of the coursed sandstone we saw in Esholt.