Coronation Street and Emmerdale’s boss has revealed details about how the history-making crossover between the nation’s two most-watched soap operas came to life – including what was changed from the original idea.
Having never been done before, ITV announced earlier this year that the unique special is to launch the broadcaster’s new ‘power hour of soap’, which begins on ITV1 and STV in January 2026.
To crossover will see the residents of Weatherfield join forces with their Yorkshire neighbours in an action-packed hour of drama, marks the start of each show screening 30 minute episodes every weekday, Emmerdale at 8pm and Corrie at 8.30pm.
To mark the change, producers, scriptwriters and production teams conceived the ingenious way of linking the two universes, with characters then returning to the soaps they are renowned for inhabiting in Manchester and Yorkshire, but with the horror that unfolds linking them forever.
Corriedale has since been teased in two atmospheric promo videos that gives a glimpse at the horror coming up in the episode, set to air on Monday (January 5) at 8pm. They reveal that in the chaotic aftermath of the smash, characters from both shows calling for help in the darkness as the emergency services arrive at the scene on a country road near the village of Hotten.
While how things play out is being kept a secret, a 40-strong cast list for the historic TV event has been confirmed and it’s been confirmed that the single drama has been more than a year in the making.
It is the first time that Coronation Street and Emmerdale have joined forces(Image: ITV)
Speaking to press at the premiere of Corriedale at The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, the UK City of Culture 2025, Iain MacLeod, ITV’s Executive Producer for Continuing Drama, revealed: “Well, the main difference was how it started off. ‘There’s a crash on the M62, and then I was like, how much does it cost to shut a motorway?; And they were like, ‘Hmm…’ You know, the very level headed production people, had the job of going, ‘Well, we can’t quite do that, but what about?’
“And so the nature of the road changed, but the nature of the stories stayed very much, as originally conceived, and partly that’s because all the storylines that featured in it were things that have been generated by the very talented writing teams of Corrie and Emmerdale separately. So I just took gold and wove it into something, hopefully entertaining. So it was robust and stayed the same because we had really robust foundations in the stories that were leading up to it, in short.”
Iain told how it was writer Owen Lloyd-Fox who was decided as the man for the Corriedale job, and he also spoke to press about what was most difficult about combining the two soap universes. “I think the hardest thing was that I wanted it to be, well, I was begging in for a movie-length version, but I wanted it to be a week long because what a brilliant sandbox.
“I don’t like that phrase, but what a brilliant world to play in, you can bring these characters together. And I loved being asked to do those extra scenes, to those characters together, because in my head, I’m a fan as well as a writer, and in my head, I’ve thought, ‘What would happen if Tracy [Barlow] meets Ross [Barton],’ or if there was a load of different combinations of characters that I would want to get there.
A dramatic crash will be at the centre of the drama(Image: ITV)
“So the hardest thing was just fitting anything in. And I would have loved to have written it forever because I just want these brilliant characters to sit down and have a chat and just, you know, to be in the pub and have a chat and and feel each other out and have affairs and do all the things characters do together.”
Asked about the name, Iain admitted: “To be honest, we spent ages going, ‘What’s it going to be called?’ And then we were like, well, Corriedale’s almost the first words out of anyone’s mouth. Like, that’s too obvious. There’s got to be something else we can call it, and we spent months and months torturing ourselves. ‘Oh, come on, we’re supposed to be creative!’
“But no, we’ll just call it Corriedale. It just makes no sense to go the other way. Emmernation is confusing because it’s actually almost a real word. So, yeah, Corriedale was the logical choice, I think, and it works. I love the logo. I think I might have that printed on a T-shirt or a beer mat or something just so it stays with me forever.
Characters from both ITV soaps will come face-to-face(Image: ITV)
“It looks great and it’s a soap first and I can’t think of anything more proud in my career than that. So, yeah, I’m going to get it printed on loads of stuff and parade around like an embarrassing idiot wearing it all. But no, Corriedale was the only choice really in the end.”
And after saying there wasn’t another crossover episode in the works, Iain was asked that now these characters have met each other and interacted, if there any possibility of, maybe just in passing, a comment in Coronation Street saying something about what’s going on in Emmerdale or vice versa, to which he confirmed: “There are two stories that emerge from what you see that do pursue parallel lines, one in one show, and one in the other show.
“So there’s some degree to which those stories are in conversation with each other, but not literally, there’s no crossovers or anything like that. But, you know, all those characters exist in the same fictional universe and now the same is true of Emmerdale and Corrie, but I don’t think there’s going to be much beyond what you’ve just seen.”