Tonight’s the night! After eight months of teasers and anticipation, Coronation Street and Emmerdale are about to cross over for the first time ever, as ITV airs a history-making one-hour special: Corriedale.

We’ve covered all of the news and updates every step of the way since the exciting episode was first announced last May, so if you’re looking for a quick refresher on the main things to know, look no further…

 

 

Corriedale airs tonight at 8pm on ITV1 in an hour-long slot. The episode is not being released early on ITVX or YouTube, as soap bosses want to preserve the big surprises and ensure that everyone is watching at the same time.

Emmerdale and Coronation Street are also airing regular episodes tonight at 7pm and 7.30pm respectively, which show the build-up to Corriedale. These are available to watch early on ITVX and YouTube as usual.

Corriedale brings the universes of Coronation Street and Emmerdale together for an epic stunt storyline as a multi-vehicle crash takes place on a country road, which involves characters from both soaps.

The official synopsis reads: “The worlds of two major soaps collide in a catastrophic, life-changing one-hour special. It begins with Debbie Webster’s dramatic wedding to Ronnie, where a desperate, drink-fuelled Carl speeds away with Debbie in the car.

“Simultaneously, Becky – fleeing her past with Lisa and Betsy – loses control of her vehicle, triggering a multi-car pile-up on a stormy road between Hotten and Weatherfield.

“The minibus carrying wedding guests – including Billy, David, pregnant Shona, Steve, and Tracy heads towards the crash, but can Billy steer them out of danger? With a drunken Carl careering out of control on the wet road, is he about to put more lives at risk?

“Elsewhere, the desperate love triangle between Aaron, Robert and the vengeful John Sugden culminates in the chaos, as Aaron is held at gunpoint. Hot on their heels, Kit and Carla arrive to save lives and pursue fugitives.

“Cain and Moira are taking Jacob and Sarah to the airport and are blinded by Mack, in his car with Charity, flashing his lights. Cain desperately tries to avert disaster when Mack’s car crashes nearby. In the queue of traffic, a mysterious van pulls up, concealing a terrified, bound woman.

“The episode ends at Hotten General, where the injured arrive, but life will never be the same. The aftermath of the crash gives rise to fear, murderous intent, death, destruction, closely-guarded secrets, and lies.”

Corriedale features 40 characters from the two soaps – a full list was released in December and can be found separately here.

A 41st character is also on the list – newcomer Jodie, played by Olivia Frances-Brown. She hasn’t appeared in either of the shows before, but was included in the Corrie section of characters on ITV’s official release.

Corriedale was filmed across three weeks in October. This included a 12-night shoot on a disused road close to Harrogate, Yorkshire.

“Cast and crew from both shows worked alongside each other for the first time ever to film the multi vehicle pile-up, and when the cameras stopped rolling, the tears and trauma turned to laughter as they shared hot cups of coffee, mountains of sweets and had a good old catch up,” an ITV statement recently revealed.

Corriedale bosses are giving fans the chance to influence the episode by voting for an extra crossover scene, which will see two characters from separate soaps interact. A shortlist was drawn up based on viewer suggestions from social media:

Voting is open via the official social media pages – click here for details.

“Voting closes 15 minutes before transmission,” ITV soap boss Iain MacLeod recently said. “I will be in the transmission suite on the night going, ‘Play that one! Hopefully that’s the right one!’ I’m already feeling a little sweaty about that, to be honest.”

He added: “We’ll find some avenue for you to see all of them at some point, I’m sure. But in terms of what goes in the episode, the final version of Corriedale to be enshrined for posterity, that will be up to the audience.”

ITV is merging the soaps for one night only to mark the beginning of a new scheduling pattern for the two shows. From Tuesday (6 January), the ITV soaps move into a new “power hour” slot from 8pm to 9pm every weeknight.

The new schedule sees Emmerdale air for 30 minutes each weeknight at 8pm, followed by Corrie for 30 minutes at 8.30pm. This means that both soaps are losing 30 minutes of screen time each week, reducing from the equivalent of six episodes per week to five.

Kicking things off in dramatic fashion with Corriedale will give the new era the best possible start, boosting interest with some big storylines.