Coronation Street and Emmerdale to suspend production over coronavirus, ITV says
ITV statement says safety of its actors, crew and their families is of ‘paramount importance’
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Your support makes all the difference.ITV has said that production on Coronation Street and Emmerdale will stop from Monday due to coronavirus concerns.
Hollyoaks has also ceased production – the last of the UK soaps to do so.
A statement tweeted from the Coronation Street account read: “Coronation Street and Emmerdale will be making temporary schedule changes from Monday 30th March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“ITV has sadly taken the decision to suspend production of the soaps ... from Monday 23 March.
“We’ve been doing our best to carry on filming, while adhering to the Government’s latest health guidelines, to ensure we’ve episodes of both soaps airing on ITV until at least the early summer.
“However, the health and wellbeing of the production teams, actors, crew and their families is of paramount importance to us and we now feel that the time has come to stop filming.”
The statement concluded: “We’d like to thank our viewers for their support and hope they continue to enjoy both soaps in the coming months.”
Coronation Street will air next week as normal, with the exception of Friday 27 March. From Monday 30 March onwards, the soap will air three times per week.
A Hollyoaks spokesperson said: “From Monday 30th March, we will be reducing the number of our weekly new episodes from five down to three, which will air Monday to Wednesday. To make sure we stay on air every week night, fans can look forward to extra special episodes every Thursday and Friday on E4.”
The announcements come days after the BBC said it would halt production on all of its continuing programmes, including EastEnders and Holby City.
For a list of all the cancelled and postponed TV shows and films click here.
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