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Sadie King
Emmerdale character
Portrayed by	Patsy Kensit
Duration	2004–2006
First appearance	10 May 2004
Last appearance	21 September 2006
Introduced by	Steve Frost
Classification	Former; regular
Family Husband Jimmy King (1990–2005) Alasdair Sinclair (2006)

Sadie King (also Campbell and Sinclair) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, Emmerdale, played by Patsy Kensit. She made her first appearance on 10 May 2004 and departed two years later on 21 September 2006.

Storylines[edit]

From the moment she stepped off the helicopter all fur coat, bling shades and dazzling diamonds, it was clear that Sadie King meant business.

The bitchy blonde, who married wealthy Tom King's (Ken Farrington) eldest son Jimmy (Nick Miles), took an instant dislike to her father-in-law's ex-fiancée Charity Tate (Emma Atkins), and made her feelings very clear. She was best friends with her sister-in-law, Colleen (Melanie Ash), then married to Jimmy's brother, Carl (Tom Lister). She wasn't happy when he began dating Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter).

While her hatred of Charity was intense, Sadie was also rapidly going off her husband. Jimmy was a simple man who wanted a big family and his pretty wife by his side. Sadie, however, had other ideas and had contraceptive injections behind his back. When he forced the issue, Sadie came clean but her deception jeopardised their marriage, with a devastated Jimmy furiously demanding a divorce.

Sick of being rejected by Jimmy, Sadie began an affair with local mechanic Robert Sugden (Karl Davies) – who couldn’t believe his luck. Her love life might have been complicated, but Sadie's big interest was money. Knowing that Jimmy's rejection meant her position in the King family was threatened, Sadie began to hatch a plan to ensure Charity never became Tom's wife.

Employing a private detective to trail Charity, Sadie bribed her relative and lover Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) to get Charity in a compromising position.

With Tom already unable to contain his jealousy over Charity, Sadie put in the final dose of poison by giving him the incriminating photos on his wedding day. She had successfully sabotaged the wedding, but Sadie's actions were going to cost her dearly. Charity decided to wage war against her nemesis by sleeping with Jimmy and videotaping the whole event. In the film, Jimmy revealed everything about Sadie's plots, her alliance with Cain and the state of their marriage. A triumphant Charity burst into Jimmy's birthday party and told everyone present that they'd been having an affair, much to the fury of Sadie and the King family. Charity played the tape after she was accused of trying to cause trouble between Sadie and Jimmy.

The repercussions saw Tom disown Jimmy and Sadie, their marriage ended and Sadie found herself alone. She had no intention of losing everything - while she knew her marriage was beyond saving, Sadie launched a bid to get back into the family business. Enlisting Cain's help again, Sadie purchased land the Kings wanted for their development and blackmailed her way back into the company. She may have got what she wanted in terms of money, but she wasn’t welcomed back into the fold by Tom.

Lonely, isolated and desperate - she slept with Cain – much to his delight. When she rejected his advances later, Cain took a terrible revenge by killing her beloved dog, Damon. However, while Sadie was devastated by Damon’s murder, she had no intention of resting on her laurels. When her ex brother-in-law Max King (Charlie Kemp) died, she used Tom's vulnerability to her advantage and was back in the fold after blackmailing Zoe Tate (Leah Bracknell) to sell Home Farm to Tom, who was so grateful he even made a move on her. But, although it would have been the answer to all her problems, Sadie could not bring herself to have sex with Tom, unsurprisingly.

It transpired that Matthew King (Matt Healy) had been in love with Sadie for years and they were even sleeping together before she married Jimmy. Now they were both free, the couple started sleeping together again and Matthew, for the first time, let his guard down. Things were looking perfect for the pair as Tom prepared to step down as head of the company and hand it over to Matthew. But just before he signed on the dotted line, Jimmy exposed the couple's affair and Tom went mad. He gave Matthew a choice – be with Sadie or take over the company. Matthew chose the business, leaving Sadie devastated. She retreated to lick her wounds, but Sadie was back with a vengeance just weeks later.

Having snared a rich fiancé in the form of dimwitted Alasdair Sinclair (Ray Coulthard), she was a marriage ceremony away from being filthy rich again. But there were two problems standing in her way, Alasdair's manipulative and suspicious mother Rosemary (Linda Thorson) and ex-lover Matthew. Even though Sadie managed to get him down the aisle, it was the briefest marriage ever. Stopping her outside the church, Matthew confessed his undying love for Sadie and gave up King & Sons. Tom threw him out of the family and the couple were on their own. Sadie had no intention of being left with nothing and was soon coming up with ways to get Matthew back in business. Upon hearing that haulage rival Don Clough was selling his business, Sadie encouraged Matthew to buy it and dupe his brothers into believing false information that jeopardised their own bid. It worked, but it ensured that Matthew completely burned his bridges with his brothers – with Carl disowning him too. Sadie was hell bent on ensuring that her man and her business do brilliantly – at the expense of anyone who gets in their way.

After Matthew discovered that Sadie was involved in the King's River showhome explosion (she paid Cain to vandalise it) which left Jimmy seriously injured, he ended their relationship and was welcomed back into the family. After the breakup, Sadie became hell bent on getting even with the King family.

Along with Cain, they devised a plan to kidnap Tom. In the end, Cain informed Sadie he was departing with the £2,000,000 and without her, and fled by helicopter; Sadie was left with nothing except a BMW and was not seen again.

The last reference to Sadie was when she sent flowers to Tom's funeral. However, the flowers were discarded by Matthew. When Cain returned to the village in 2009, after being confronted by Jimmy and Carl, he asked Jimmy "Heard from your ex-wife recently?", referring to Sadie.

Creation and development[edit]

Casting[edit]

In February 2004 it was announced that Pasty Kensit had agreed to sign a contract to play a new character in Emmerdale who will appear from May onwards. Speaking of her casting Kensit said: "I'm a bit of a country girl at heart, and it's so exciting to be joining a popular soap." A show spokeswomen said: "She is a seductive, powerful and manipulative woman who knows what she wants and makes sure she gets it. We hope her character will follow in the footsteps of the soap's last superbitch, Kim Tate (Claire King)."^[1] Also saying Pasty said: "I can’t wait to get started on Emmerdale and I’ve become an avid viewer! I am a bit of a country girl at heart and it is so exciting to be joining, especially at a time when the show is so strong. The prospect of being watched by over 10 million viewers every night is intimidating but I can’t wait to get stuck in." Series Producer, Steve Frost says, "We’re very excited to have Patsy on board and looking forward to introducing such a great character to the show. Sadie will be the envy of women and the desire of men."

Feud with Charity Tate[edit]

Charity threatening Sadie with revenge, after Sadie ruined Charity's wedding to Tom.

Both Sadie and Charity are desperate to be queen of the King family, and superbitch Sadie now has some dirt on Charity that could put her ahead of the game. She discovers her arch-rival’s darkest secrets and is quick to tell Tom’s conservative friends that Charity used to be a prostitute. "Sadie acquires some interesting information from Nicola," says Patsy Kensit, who plays Sadie. "Nicola wins a cleaning contract with the Kings and as the two women celebrate, Nicola mentions what Charity used to do for a living." Sadie is fascinated and pumps Eric Pollard for even more goss on Charity. "She confronts Charity and asks her if Tom will approve of her history," says Patsy. She soon gets a chance to find out as Tom invites Charity to a dinner party for some posh friends. When Charity arrives she finds that Sadie has briefed all the guests on her wild days and the talk keeps returning to her seedy past life. "Charity goes ballistic," says Patsy. "Tom is furious with her for letting him down and she leaves in disgrace." Then, at work the next day, Charity clashes with Sadie and scrawls ‘I Quit’ in lipstick on the office mirror and throws paperwork around. Tom is angry when he walks into erupting chaos. "But it doesn’t end as Sadie planned," says Patsy. "Tom tells Charity the past is past. He asks her out for dinner. Charity happily accepts as Sadie fumes in the background."

Reception[edit]

Kensit's portrayal of Sadie earned her the "Best Bitch" award at the 2005 and 2006 Inside Soap Award ceremonies, respectively.^[2] She was also nominated for "Sexiest Female" at the 2006 British Soap Awards.^[2]
Sadie's and Cain's exit was nominated for "Best Single episode" the 2007 British Soap Awards.^[3]

The scenes during the episode featuring Sadie and Cain's exit where they kidnap Tom King and Cain appears to shoot Sadie received 37 complaints to media regulator Ofcom. ITV defended the storyline by saying it was one of the most "exciting and successful" events in the serial's history and added "Whilst Emmerdale stories do not condone violent acts, it need not and should not shy away from them." 8.5 million viewers tuned in for the episode.^[4]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Emmerdale Cast List


• Carnlough