Kim Tate

Backstory

Kimberley Jane Barker was born on 19 January 1959 in Yorkshire, and started out as Frank Tate's (Norman Bowler) secretary. She had an affair with him while his wife, Jean, was dying from cancer, despite Frank being old enough to be her father. Frank's son, Chris (Peter Amory), was also attracted to Kim although they later became bitter enemies. After Jean's death, Frank and Kim married in 1986. According to actress Claire King's autobiography, Kim was originally going to be married to Chris, but the writers decided that Kim was more interested in the Tate money and would have "cut out the middle man" by marrying Frank.^[3] Kim initially seemed to be a nice person who got on well with her stepchildren Chris and Zoe (Leah Bracknell), but her marriage to Frank soon wore her down.

1989–1999

The Tate family move to Beckindale in late 1989 as the new owners of Home Farm. Despite an initial hostile reception from the villagers, including the arson of one of the family's caravans in 1990, they soon settle in and the family are happy for a short time. However, when Kim becomes pregnant and later loses the child, Frank falls into a deep depression and turns to alcohol, neglecting Kim in the process. She becomes friends with The Rt Hon. Neil Kincaid, a family friend who is much closer to her own age and shares her equine interests. The pair find themselves travelling to auctions together and eventually, realizing their attraction to one another, consummate their relationship and embark on an affair. They soon come under threat from Kathy Tate (Malandra Burrows) when she discovers a hotel bill that Neil accidentally dropped at Home Farm. The secret remains safe until Christmas Day 1992, when Frank finds an expensive watch he'd believed to be his being worn by Neil, and Kim is thrown out of Home Farm by Frank, residing at Neil's into the New Year and divorcing her husband. After Kim and Frank separate in 1993, she sets up stables under her maiden name of Kim Barker. This, however, doesn't last long as the stables are destroyed in the plane crash in December that year, killing many of the horses. After the plane crash, Frank and Kim put aside their differences and reconcile, remarrying in December 1994. However, Zoe and Chris never trust her again.

Kim on trial (1999)

In 1995, Kim begins an affair with Dave Glover (Ian Kelsey), boyfriend of Kim's former stepdaughter-in-law Kathy, who is now divorced from Chris. This time Kim is much more ruthless about keeping the affair secret and tramples Kathy's brother Nick with her horse when he threatened to expose her. She also threatens Nick's daughter Alice. When Frank has a heart attack and is advised to take it easy, Kim encourages him to sleep with her in the hope of inducing another heart attack. Kim became pregnant and isn't sure who the father is. When Frank overhears Dave and Biff Fowler (Stuart Wade) discussing the situation, he has another heart attack and ends up in hospital. He then has time to think and decided to pretend not to know about the affair while hiring a private detective to follow Kim and Dave before confronting his wife with the evidence. He also hires scheming Tina Dingle as a secretary in Home Farm who uses to wind Kim up by wearing her dresses that Frank had bought. He offers her a million pounds to dump Dave and name him as the father and Kim accepts. Their son was named James Francis Tate.

However, after bonding with the baby, Kim and Dave resume their relationship, despite the fact that he is now married to Kathy. They plan to run away together, but a fire breaks out at Home Farm and Dave dies - of injuries sustained while rescuing baby James - in hospital on Boxing Day 1996.

Kim watches as Frank dies (1997)

In February 1997, Kim disappears from the village, and a few days later a woman was found dead at the wheel of her car. Frank identifies the body as Kim; however, in May Frank is stunned when Kim returns, revealing she had paid a lookalike prostitute to drive her car around the village to fool people into thinking she was still there (when in fact she had fled to the Caribbean) and that it is her body, not Kim's, that Frank had identified. The shock causes Frank - who had spent time on remand for her murder - to have another heart attack, this time fatal. Kim watches him die, saying "You're a dinosaur Frank - and you know what happened to them", checks he is dead with her compact mirror, then coolly redid her make-up. Chris blames her for his death and swears revenge.

After Frank's will is read out, Kim inherits a half share of Home Farm. She later starts seeing Steve Marchant (Paul Opacic) (who later became her husband), who also had a share in Home Farm. In September 1998, the couple fall on hard times and they plan to make money by stealing a horse and selling it, after replacing it with an older horse in the hope that no-one would notice the difference. Whilst driving the horse-box, however, Steve runs over Kathy. Kim manages (after narrowly preventing Steve finishing Kathy off in the hospital) to talk to Kathy when she is alone, concussed and vulnerable. She persuades her that Steve did not stop his vehicle when he hit her, to make her husband seem like the sole villain of the piece - even though she had helped to plan the theft of the horse.

On the day of trial in January 1999, when the lawyers begin to question Kathy's validity as a witness for Steve's hit-and-run crime, Kathy herself begins to question how true Kim's words are. For this, and numerous other crooked tricks, the police are soon on Kim's trail. Needing to escape, Kim discovers that Chris has found the money from the robbery that she had buried in Frank's grave. She confronts Chris, tries seducing him, and knocks him out with a paperweight when he is not fooled. Then she confesses that she had indeed, as he speculated, killed his father; he had died of a heart attack while she looked on - in precisely the location Chris is lying in. She leaves with her son, James, in a helicopter. The pilot asks her if she is Kim Marchant, and with her final words on the show she replies, "No, Kim Tate".

In 2005, she sends flowers to Emmerdale for the funeral of Seth, and it is believed that she has since resided in Ireland. At a later date Kim was captured and sent to prison.

2018–

Kim is released from prison and greeted by Graham Foster (Andrew Scarborough) at the gate and is given the keys to Home Farm. Kim finds out that her former step-grandson, Joe Tate (Ned Porteous), has ran into financial trouble on the day of his wedding to Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb). Kim arrives in Emmerdale and declares herself the owner of Home Farm once again and demands that Graham to get rid of Joe. Instead, Graham packs Joe a bag and gives him £100,000 and demands him to leave Emmerdale before Kim arrives. During the welcome home party, Kim insults and alienates various people and when she goes upstairs she's pushed from the upstairs balcony by an unseen assailant and falls onto the champagne fountain below. She's rushed to hospital and survives the incident. Later, Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) is arrested on suspicion of pushing Kim as she and Kim were seen arguing during the party after insulting her teenage son, Noah. However, it is later revealed that Faith Dingle (Sally Dexter) is the real culprit who pushed Kim. After she's released from hospital, Kim is detained again for dangerous and uninsured driving.

Reintroduction

On 24 September 2018, it was confirmed that Claire King had reprised her role as Kim Tate after almost twenty years off-screen. The return was teased as Kim having "unfinished business in the village". Producer Kate Brooks added: "Kim Tate is such a hurricane of a character, notorious for wreaking havoc wherever she goes. Kim's explosive return shakes the very foundations of the village as she swaggers back into Home Farm, leaving a devastating trail of destruction in her wake." King said: "As a Yorkshire lass myself, I'm absolutely thrilled to be back in Yorkshire for a fun-filled cameo, once again reaping havoc in the Dales!".^[4] Her return aired as part of a "special week" of episodes between 8 and 12 October 2018.

On 12 October 2018, it was confirmed that Kim would be returning permanently in 2019. Speaking about Kim's return, Claire said: "You knew she wasn't going to go away quietly, so I'm so pleased to announce Kim will be back. It's been great fun keeping it under wraps but now she can really get down to business!". Executive producer, Jane Hudson said: "Although Kim's initial return was fleeting, she caused such mischief and chaos that we simply couldn't resist bringing her back. Kim Tate is just getting warmed up for an explosive 2019 which will see her hell-bent on getting exactly what, and who, she wants."^[5][6]