2026 has started with a bang (quite literally) as Coronation Street and Emmerdale collide in this highly anticipated 60-minute showdown.
Corrie and Emmerdale are the go-to soaps in my household — a house where even the word EastEnders would be considered a swear word — as the two powerhouses of the UK soap world will always be Coronation Street and Emmerdale in my eyes.
In this special episode, characters’ fates hang in the balance. We lose a few familiar faces, and storylines are beautifully teed up for each show moving forward into the 2026 soap calendar year.
There’s a lot going on, and for those who haven’t seen it yet, we won’t be spoiling who died, who survived, or whose fate is yet to be decided. What I will say, however, is that this was peak television that had the nation hooked.
Shot in the usual cinematic style, as is the case with these special episodes, there’s a gloss to the picture and a noticeable shift in focus that looks very different from how we normally watch each show.
There’s tension and drama throughout, with the episode looking every inch like a Hollywood blockbuster, the stakes high and the suspense matching it beat for beat.
Shot very much like a thriller, this crossover sees characters interacting with one another, with the road traffic accident serving as the central storyline connecting the two worlds.
Long-standing characters are placed in life-and-death circumstances, with some engaging in physical peril and others navigating emotionally charged aftermaths. There is real dramatic weight to the interactions, as familiar faces from two distinct fictional worlds collide and adapt to a shared crisis.
For the most part, character interactions feel natural rather than forced, with only a rather strange vending-machine meet-cute between Ken Barlow and Eric Pollard standing out as the exception.
Fans of both shows will experience equal measures of drama and loss, but it feels as though Emmerdale has reaped greater long-term storyline benefits from this episode. More of the show’s characters have their fates hanging in the balance, and the consequences of the accident appear far more far-reaching for the village-based soap not to mention the return of a beloved character we all thought had died a long, long time ago.
Initial reactions on social media have been very positive, and both shows deserve the plaudits here, as spectacle and shock value combine for one hell of an entertaining 60 minutes of television.
Corriedale is a bold experiment in serial drama that offers a concentrated burst of high-stakes storytelling. Its strengths lie in its ambition, production scale, and the unifying thrill of watching two beloved soaps intersect.
With certainly more spectacle than substance, there were still more than enough twists and turns to keep fans of both shows happy — and if you’re lucky enough to enjoy them both, you’re definitely going to take the biggest satisfaction from this crossover.
Corriedale is undeniably daring and equally memorable.
Wow. Just wow.
Our Rating
Summary
A 60-minute powerhouse of television as Coronation Street and Emmerdale combine to prove to the nation who the two top soaps are in the United Kingdom. Eastenders could never…
