REVEALED: When Coronation Street and Emmerdale will be back to airing six episodes a week

(Image credit: ITV)

Not long to go now, folks!

There’s good news for soap fans! It’s been revealed that both Coronation Street and Emmerdale will go back to their usual format of airing six episodes a week from mid September!

The announcement was made today by ITV’s Director of Television, Kevin Lygo, as part of an online presentation about the channel’s Autumn schedule.

Says Lygo: “I’m very pleased to announce today that the pillars of our schedule, Emmerdale and Coronation Street, will return to full strength, six episodes of each, from mid September.

“We’re very proud of the fact that neither of these soaps have been off air throughout the Spring and Summer. In addition to this, Coronation Street, which is attracting over seven million viewers an episode, will mark its 60^th anniversary in December with some memorable storylines.”

Both soaps were forced to halt production back in March when the country went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Emmerdale began a phased return to filming at the end of May; initially filming six special episodes featuring characters in lockdown.

Emmerdale behind the scenes lockdown — Emmerdale filmed six 'lockdown specials' with Cain and Aaron amongst the characters featured

The cast of Coronation Street resumed filming at the beginning of June, The episode airing on Friday 24^th July was the first to acknowledge the pandemic, with references to the likes of hand washing and social distancing.

Coronation Street behind the scenes social distancing — Coronation Street resumed filming in June, and introduced strict social distancing measures

The exact date of when the six episodes a week pattern will be resumed hasn’t been revealed, but the most likely date looks to be September 14^th.

Lygo also announced a raft of brand new dramas and entertainment, factual and daytime shows. Amongst the highlights is an adaptation of the Booker Prize winning satirical novel The Singapore Grip, starring Luke Treadaway, David Morrissey, Charles Dance and Jane Horrocks.

There’s also the return of fan favourites including I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, Britain’s Got Talent and The Voice; the latter two shows picking up from where they left off in the Spring.

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Alison Slade has over 20 years of experience as a TV journalist and has spent the vast majority of that time as Soap Editor of TV Times magazine. She is passionate about the ability of soaps to change the world by presenting important, issue-based stories about real people in a relatable way. There are few soap actors that she hasn’t interviewed over the years, and her expertise in the genre means she has been called upon as a judge numerous times for The British Soap Awards and the BAFTA TV Awards.

When she is not writing about soaps, watching soaps, or interviewing people who are in soaps, she loves going to the theatre, taking a long walk or pottering about at home, obsessing over Farrow and Ball paint.