For the first time in British television history, the country’s soaps and continuing dramas have joined forces to highlight the issue of climate change and environmental issues.
Casualty, Coronation Street, Doctors, EastEnders, Emmerdale, Holby City and Hollyoaks have each filmed scenes, or have references, to cover different aspects of climate change and, in a soap first, five of the soaps will also be referencing each other as each drama will also give a nod to another.
Viewers will see some of Britain’s best loved characters pop up in another soap as they discuss, or see the moments, that have been debated in another show in a bid to raise awareness of climate change.
The drama begins on Monday 1 November, the same week as World Leaders meet to discuss the climate crisis at the COP26 conference.
Commented Jane Hudson on behalf of Emmerdale and ITV Studios: “Never before have all five soaps and both continuing dramas come together and united in telling one story. And we certainly haven't seen characters pop up in other shows before. This is a real treat for our audience, whilst also allowing us to get across a very important message.”
Kate Oates, Head of Continuing Drama, BBC Studios adds: “I’m thrilled that our soaps and serial dramas have all come together to help highlight the issue of climate change amongst our millions of viewers. We’re grateful to the teams that made this happen, and hugely look forward to seeing the talent from our own shows popping up in other iconic programmes.”
Lucy Allan, Executive Producer, Hollyoaks said: “We know how important climate change and environmental issues are to our youthful audience, and to all soap viewers. It has been great to work together on an engaging way to, hopefully, inspire conversations about issues that are so important."
More details of the content within each soap will follow.