This included introducing new characters Sarah Connolly and the three-strong Hughes family in September to "shake up the mix and to act as identification figures" for newer viewers.

She decided not to renew her contract, along with Frazer Hines (Joe Sugden) and Fionnuala Ellwood (Lynn Whiteley).

[5] Spiro admitted that taking over another actor's role was "slightly odd", but she had also never watched Emmerdale before, so it felt like a clean slate to her and made the part easier to approach.

"[6] Viewers eventually warmed to Spiro's take on the character during a storyline in which her stepson Robert Sugden (Christopher Smith) goes missing.

"[5] Spiro was not a fan of her character's style and thought she wore too many checked shirts, so she planned to change her wardrobe.

She told Inside Soap's Claire Brand that Sarah got on well with Richie and had seemingly found someone she could talk to, who was also interested in her as a person.

Having grown frustrated with Sarah's stalling, Richie packs her bags and tells Jack the truth when they return home.

When Andy and Robert tell her that they no longer want anything to do with her, Sarah is "devastated" and Spiro told Brand that she ends up convincing herself that Jack is not letting them see her, as she cannot believe the truth.

She explained that since the show had started going out five nights a week, the workload had increased and as she lived in London, she found it "an impossibility".

"[8] Sarah arrives as a librarian at the local library of Beckindale and befriends Archie Brooks (Tony Pitts), Kathy Merrick (Malandra Burrows) and Rachel Hughes (Glenda McKay).

She also becomes friendly with local farmer Jack Sugden when he returns a book to the library but when she asks him out, he rejects her advances because he is still grieving for his late wife, Pat (Helen Weir) who died a year and a half earlier and had to look after his and Pat's two-year-old son Robert Sugden (Richard Smith).

However, Jack and Pat's 24-year-old son Jackie Merrick (Ian Sharrock) dislikes Sarah and tries to get his brother away from her any time he can, not wanting their mother's memory to be forgotten.

In 1990, Sarah agrees to move in with Jack in the farm but keeps the connecting door nailed shut to stop his mother Annie Sugden's (Sheila Mercier) habit of wandering in declaring she was used to living alone.

The mobile library closes in June 1990 so Jack gets Sarah a job as barmaid in the woolpack working for Amos and Henry Wilks (Arthur Pentelow).

In May 1994, Jack and Sarah marry but weeks after the wedding, Victoria stops breathing and a hole in her heart was found.

The Sugdens' marriage is tested when Sarah befriends American professor Andrew MacKinnon (Michael J. Jackson), much to Jack's jealousy and further strain comes when Robert runs away from home but is safely found by Derek Simpson (Garry Cooper) who is wrongly of kidnapping him.

Billy escapes from prison and tries to rob the post office, accidentally killing Vic Windsor (Alun Lewis).

Sarah demands that they go back to school and takes a job at Kathy's diner so they can afford to employ people on the farm.

As the Millennium dawns, Sarah begins an affair with lodger Richie Carter, and she and Jack split up when the truth is revealed in May.

Following a house fire started by a teenage Victoria (Isabel Hodgins), Andy confesses to killing Sarah and is sentenced to three years imprisonment but is released within a few months.