Coronation Street showrunner Iain MacLeod has revealed that a "strong community story" will form the heart of its 60th anniversary celebrations in December.
The soap returned to filming new material this week after almost three months of shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, although older cast members will initially be limited to appearances via Zoom calls.
Speaking to reporters at a virtual press conference, MacLeod said that his team had originally been planning some big visual stunts to mark the 60th birthday milestone but those plans have now been scrapped as a result of the shutdown.
"What we've had to strip out of our planning for the 60th was some of the bigger, Hollywood spectacular elements simply because we didn't have the time after we came back from the lockdown to build and install all of the things that we would need to do," he explained.
"So we've kind of peeled all of that away and - much to my immense relief - what we've discovered is what's below all of those Hollywood spectacular are three or four fantastically good stories.
"There's a strong community story in there - communities something that's had a bit of a resurgence, come into lockdown and everyone's probably familiar with people standing on their front doors clapping. I feel like there's that kind of street-by-street community that wasn't there pre-lockdown.
"We've got a huge human interest story that emerges from something that is on screen right now, which has proved to be very engaging and popular with the audience. And we've got the classic, salacious love triangle story in there."
Former cast members have also been tipped to return for the special episodes and here we profile 20 characters who could be in line for a comeback.
Neil Wilkes
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