ITV Readies Coronation Street & Emmerdale Specials

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The British daily dramas Coronation Street and Emmerdale are set to roll out three new specials this summer on ITV.

Coronation Street will look back at its memorable moments and iconic characters, while Emmerdale will revisit three generations of its most popular families. The specials have been commissioned to air alongside the new episodes of Coronation Street and Emmerdale that are currently being filmed in Manchester and Leeds and will continue to air on ITV across the summer months.

The tentatively titled Coronation Street Memorable Moments is an 8×30-minute clip-based series narrated by Jason Manford that will look back over 60 years, with each episode curated from the show’s archives. “Coronation Street: Weddings” will be a celebration of the best and most dramatic weddings in Weatherfield, where there have been 130 weddings over the decades. “Coronation Street: Villains,” meanwhile, will take look back at some of the notorious baddies to ever walk the streets of the village—from Richard Hillman and Charlie Stubbs to Maya Sharma and Pat Phelan. The episodes will also include “Coronation Street: Stories That Gripped The Nation,” “Coronation Street: Battle Axes,” “Coronation Street: Scandals,” “Coronation Street: Partnerships,” “Coronation Street: Famous Faces” and “Coronation Street: High Days and Holidays.”

The 4×30-minute Coronation Street Icons, narrated by Sally Lindsay, looks back at some of the iconic characters who have walked the cobbles over the years. It will celebrate such characters as Ken Barlow (played by William Roache), Sally Metcalfe (played by Sally Dynevor), Liz McDonald (played by Beverley Callard) and Roy Cropper (played by David Neilson). The episodes will contain archive footage and new talking heads by cast members past and present.

Emmerdale Family Trees, 4×30-minute series narrated by Gaynor Faye, explores the different generations of three of the soap’s most loved families—The Tates, The Sugdens and The Dingles. The series will be a mixture of archive footage and new talking heads by cast members past and present.

All three specials are an ITV Studios Entertainment Production for ITV.

Katie Rawcliffe, ITV’s head of entertainment commissioning, said: “Not only will new episodes of the soaps continue in the schedules, we now have these new specials to join them and entertain viewers. Both soaps have a rich history and we’ve delved into the archives with these new programs to celebrate that.”

Tom McLennan, director of ITV Studios Entertainment North, said: “It has been a joy and a privilege to delve into the archives of the nation’s favorite soaps. The characters and storylines are as gripping today as they were then and it is the perfect opportunity to celebrate them.”