Frank Tate (Emmerdale) Frank Tate (Emmerdale) Frank Tate is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera, "Emmerdale", played by Norman Bowler. He made his first appearance on 21 November 1989 and remained a regular for almost eight years, before Bowler opted to quit in 1996, leading to his character’s exit the following year. Introduced as the patriarch of the new Tate family, who were brought in as part of the show’s rebranding, in 1989, many of Frank’s storylines revolved around his volatile relationship with his wife Kim Tate (Claire King). During his time in the programme, Frank and Kim divorced and
Emmerdale plane crash White in October 2015. Previously seen as "quaint and slow" compared to other British soap operas, the plane crash was a turning point for "Emmerdale" and marked its "graduation" into a major prime time soap opera. The episode gave "Emmerdale" its highest-ever audience of 18 million. ITV received many complaints as the timing of the storyline was close to the fifth anniversary of the Lockerbie Disaster. According to "The Independent", the episode proved to be "brilliant television", as it "allowed the writers to get rid of much dead wood, and reinvent the soap virtually from scratch." In the 5 January