Once upon a time, it was the US soaps that provided audiences with outrageous storylines and amazing stunts.
Dynasty shocked us when the royal wedding of Blake and Alexis’s daughter Amanda was interrupted by armed gunmen who sprayed the congregation with bullets and ended their final series on major cliffhanger when Alexis and Dex Dexter plummeted off a balcony after a catfight with Sable and Adam Carrington.
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The Colbys had a flying saucer abduct Fallon Colby, Dallas had exploding apartments and car crashes a-go-go.
But then the Brits caught up.
Emmerdale did it first back in 1993 when a plane crashed on the village. It was a storyline that was spectacular and controversial at the same time.
From that moment on British soaps have looked forward to dreaming up some unbelievable set pieces.
Hollyoaks have jumped and run with it, blowing something up every other month or announcing one of the characters a serial killer.
Then Corrie had the tram crash that killed off some key characters.
EastEnders had a helter skelter collapse a couple of years and, in January of this year, a bus managed to manoeuvre around the sharp and tight corners of Albert Square and wreck the market and crush poor Martin Fowler.
Last year Emmerdale also treated viewers to a spectacular helicopter crash and – last October – a motorway pile-up that was simply sensational.
Now the show’s boss is hoping to go one better.
Emmerdale’s current series producer Iain MacLeod has teased that he has a sensational storyline coming up in which several characters could die.
“I don’t want to tell you which characters are involved but it builds on and stems from last year’s big autumn set piece,” he has teased.
“There will be similar stylistic works on it like last year but I’m on strict instructions not to tell you…”
Remaining very coy, he continued: “I can’t give much away for obvious reasons because the success of last year was the fact that there were surprises galore and there will be this year.”
“There will be similar stylistic works on it like last year but I’m on strict instructions not to tell you…”
What a spoilsport!
However he did let slip to The Sun that there will be “stunts yes and no, there is an action component to it”.
He added: “Last year’s spectacular was such a massive action set piece and so much stunt work.
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“While we did toy with the idea of trying to top that I don’t know how we’d do that without looking ridiculous, like we’re trying to top it.
“We’ve gone down different routes so it’s more… the action is equally as dramatic but it’s more intimate and more intense as it concerns a smaller group of people, rather than crashing as many vehicles we could get our hands on.
“We just thought you can’t do that twice.”
Meanwhile, EastEnders are also planning to emulate Emmerdale’s road disaster.
Last week pics emerged of the Carters caught up in a tragedy on the motorway – who dies?
We’ll just have to wait and see (though it’s rumoured it could be Johnny carter!).