Emmerdale boss on help from rival soaps amid filming challenges

It's hard to recall now, but for a time in 2020 there was a period where the soaps weren't filming. Due to COVID, some rationed their episodes out, some went off the air entirely, and others combined footage shot months apart in the same episodes, which led to amusing continuity moments.

But, stalwarts of British TV that they are, the soaps were some of the first dramas to return to filming, devising some ingenious ways to get around social distancing restrictions that we are sure the rest of the industry followed.

Speaking to Digital Spy and other outlets, Emmerdale executive producer Jane Hudson talked about how all the soaps came together to share ideas on how to adapt to the new way of doing things.

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"For everybody, COVID has been a challenge, all the soaps have been amazing," she said. "We talk to each other a lot and share our ideas. I'll watch EastEnders and think 'how did they do that?!'

"We've come up with clever ways to do things but we want to try and keep it as normal looking as we can. It is difficult, we're working at two metre distance, we have systems in place, but safety for cast and crew is first in our mind. If it's not safe to do something, we won't do it.

"I think the fact we managed to pull off Super Soap Week is an example of what we can achieve under restrictions. That would've been difficult anytime!

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"I think we're getting more and more used to working with it and embracing it, rather than it being the big problem like it was at the beginning."

As Jane mentioned, Emmerdale pulled off some pretty big stunts for Super Soap Week, and with its 50th anniversary coming in October, we're sure that they have plenty more in mind.

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays.