Coronation Street fans are in for “loads of twists” as Super Soap Week kicks off later this month, producer Iain MacLeod has promised.
The cobbles are set for a “huge event” which brings “death and destruction” to Weatherfield, as storm clouds gather amid Halloween plans for Debbie Webster’s ‘Horror-Nation Street’.
One of the soap’s biggest storylines of the year – Corey Brent’s hate crime attack of Seb Franklin and Nina Lucas – will get a brand-new chapter as Seb’s mum Abi is out for revenge – and has managed to secure a gun.
Nina’s desperate to stop Abi doing something stupid – but will she get there in time to stop her, especially as Abi and Corey both find themselves at the bottom of a Victorian sewer?
Elsewhere, Leanne comes face-to-face with her worst nightmare, as drug lord Harvey Gaskell makes an explosive return to the cobbles.
And the Alahans aren’t safe either, as Dev, Aadi and Asha prepare to leave for their family holiday.
As the storm rages on overhead, the family find themselves lost on a country road, with a prison van heading in the same direction with an injured Harvey in the back – with only vengeance on his mind.
Later, Dev is forced to choose which of his children to rescue from his burning car.
Nobody has noticed the shifting earth around the Platt family sinkhole – and Jenny Connor soon finds that very ground opening up beneath her, as her ex Johnny rushes in to save her.
It looks like no-one is safe, especially as producer Iain has promised twists that viewers “won’t see coming”.
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He told Daily Star Online: “What you can expect is something truly massive. We had a conversation with the network earlier in the year, and they said, ‘What about we did something in the autumn where money was no object and you just went nuts, and we sort of re-announce to the world that Coronation Street is still operating in top gear?’
“As a producer, when someone says, ‘Imagine money’s no object’, you do kind of rub your hands together a bit,” he admitted.
“So we set out to do something really huge. I wrote down an outline of what I wanted this week to be, and in the back of my mind I thought, There’s no way we’ll be able to do all this – it’s just too ambitious!’
“I gave it to our incredibly talented production team and crew and they went, ‘Yep, we can do that!’
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“Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, we set about refining scripts to try and create something really thriller-ish, really visual, really heartfelt and humorous in places.”
Iain added: “It’s got loads of twists in it. It’s got some stuff in there which I think you’ll never see coming – which is, for my money, always the best thing in a soap or in any drama.
“Stuff that makes you go, ‘What have they just done?’ – and there’s lots of that in there.”
But the week won’t be confined to just October – it will have far-reaching consequences for Corrie and all those involved.
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Iain explained: “It’s only worth doing it if the aftermath is more interesting than the week. It’s all very well ‘blowing the street up’, but if at the end nothing has changed and everyone’s lives proceed exactly as if it had never happened, then it hasn’t been worth doing at all.
“So we try to construct all these stories in a way that means they’re a launchpad of something really massive going forward, rather than just feeling like the end of things.
“There are brilliant final chapters in certain stories going on this week but there are also exciting novel chapters in all kinds of different areas, some of which I think will be quite surprising for people.”
Iain said the scripting in the latest stunt week is “incredibly tight”.
“The week is Coronation Street in microcosm. It’s got big drama, it’s got lots of heart, lots of humour, and the spectacular stuff that we do particularly well. I think the end result is more ambitious than anything we’ve done on the soap before.
The filming took more than a month to film, and wasn’t without its challenges, Iain explained.
“It wasn’t without its hiccups in places, but our crew and cast worked incredibly hard on night shoots and going off on location. It was a challenging and long shoot for everyone concerned.
“I think it was worth all the blood sweat and tears that went into it because the end result is incredibly dramatic and heartstoppingly brilliant.”
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Daily Star revealed that a show favourite is set to be killed off during the huge week, with Iain MacLeod saying: “We have a big stunt planned that will centre around the sinkhole in the Platt family’s back garden. And that will result in a death.
“Deaths only really work if it’s somebody that you really care about and it’s going to be somebody that viewers know and love.
“It is going to be classic Corrie. It will be tragic, but it will also be warm and funny.”
He also revealed that the actor who is leaving the show is “thrilled” with the scenes and said they were the “best scenes they’ve ever done on the show”.
Corrie airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday at 7.30pm on ITV.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
