Kimberley Jane Marchant (née Barker, previously Tate) is the second wife of Frank Tate and is hailed as one of the most iconic Emmerdale characters.
Biography
1959-1989
Kim Barker started out as Frank Tate's secretary. She had an affair with him while his wife, Jean, was dying of cancer, despite Frank being old enough to be her father. Frank's son, Chris, was also attracted to Kim although they later became bitter enemies.
1989-1999
After Jean's death, Frank and Kim married and they moved to Home Farm in late 1989. Kim initially seemed to be a nice person who got on well with her stepchildren Chris and Zoe. She was also good friends with Chris's wife, Kathy. This all changed in 1992 when her affair with Neil Kincaid was discovered. Frank found out on Christmas Day and threw Kim out of Home Farm. Kim ended her relationship with Neil not long afterwards.
After Kim and Frank separated in 1993, she set up stables under her maiden name of Kim Barker. This, however, didn't last long as the stables were 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 reconciled, remarrying in December 1994. However, Zoe and Chris never trusted her again.
In 1995, Kim began an affair with Dave Glover, boyfriend of Kim's former friend Kathy Tate (now divorced from Chris). This time Kim was much more ruthless about keeping the affair secret and trampled Kathy's brother Nick with her horse when he threatened to expose her. She also threatened Nick's daughter Alice. When Frank had a heart attack and was advised to take it easy, Kim encouraged him to sleep with her in the hope of inducing another heart attack. Kim became pregnant and wasn't sure who the father was. When Frank overheard Dave and Biff Fowler discussing the situation, he did have another heart attack and ended up in hospital. He then had 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 hired schemimg Tina Dingle as a secretary in Home Farm who used to wind Kim up by wearing her dresses that Frank had bought. He offered her a million pounds to dump Dave and name him as the father and Kim accepted. Their son was named James Francis Tate.
However, after bonding with the baby, Kim and Dave resumed their relationship, despite the fact that he was now married to Kathy. They planned to run away together, but a fire broke out at Home Farm and Dave died - of injuries sustained while rescuing baby James - in hospital on Boxing Day 1996.
In February 1997, Kim disappeared from the village, and a few days later a woman was found dead at the wheel of her car. Frank identified the body as Kim; however, in May Frank was stunned when Kim returned, 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 was her body, not Kim's, that Frank had identified. The shock caused Frank - who had spent time on remand for her murder - to have another heart attack, this time fatal. Kim watched him die, saying "You're a dinosaur Frank - and you know what happened to them", checked he was dead with her compact mirror, then coolly redid her make-up. Chris blamed her for his death and swore revenge.
After Frank's will was read out, Kim inherited a half share of Home Farm. She later started seeing Steve Marchant (who later became her husband), who also had a share in Home Farm.
In 1998, when Kim and her new husband, Steve, fell on hard times, they planned 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 happened to run over Kathy. Kim managed (after narrowly preventing Steve finishing Kathy off in the hospital) to talk to Kathy while she was alone, concussed and vulnerable. She persuaded her that Steve had not stopped his vehicle when he had 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, with the lawyers questioning Kathy's validity as a witness for Steve's hit-and-run crime, Kathy herself questioned how true Kim's words had been. For this, and numerous other crooked tricks, the police were soon on her trail. Needing to escape, Kim discovered that Chris had found the money from the robbery that she had buried in Frank's grave. She confronted Chris, tried seducing him, and knocked him out with a paperweight when he was not fooled. Then she confessed 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 was now lying in. She left with her son, James, in a helicopter. The pilot asked her if she was Kim Marchant, and with her final words on the show she replied, "No, Kim Tate".
She has never been seen again. Kim is consequently one of the soap's few villains never to be punished for her crimes, or properly killed off. She was sentenced by the court in her absence, regardless.
Kim sent flowers to Emmerdale for the funeral of Seth Armstrong in 2005.
Background information
- According to Claire King's autobiography - 'Confessions of a Bad Girl', 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.
- Claire King quit the role in October 1996, but a few days after her final scenes aired in February 1997, the producers asked her back with more exciting storylines and a high pay rise, which saw Kim return on screen in May 1997. She decided to leave again in August 1998 and remained until January 1999.
Kill count
Murders
- Frank Tate, 22nd May 1997 - Succumbed to a fatal heart attack caused by Kim, who leaves Frank to die rather than help him.
Attempted murders
- Nick Bates, 14th November 1995 - Trampled by Kim's horse.
Trivia
- Kim worked as a bingo caller in Cleethorpes during the summer of 1984.
Quotes
"(to Seth Armstrong) 'Scuse me, can you tell me the quickest way to Home Farm please?"
(first line)
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"You're a dinosaur, Frank. And you know what happened to them." (To Frank when she watched him die of a heart attack)
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"No. Kim Tate." (Final line - to a helicopter pilot when he asked if she was Kim Marchant)