'Emmerdale' have confirmed "at least one character" will die next week following an explosive stunt.
Laura Shaw
The ITV soap have shot their biggest sequence since the coronavirus pandemic began, and the action will unfold next week when Jimmy King (Nick Miles) loses control of his vehicle which careers off the road at speed and ploughs into farm buildings, resulting in a series of explosive events which will eventually lead to the untimely death of at least one character.
Producer Laura Shaw admitted shooting the dramatic sequence - which occurs on Paul Ashdale (Reece Dinsdale) and Mandy Dingle's (Lisa Riley) wedding day - amid coronavirus-enforced social distancing regulations was "no easy task".
She said: "For months now we've been waiting for the appalling, horrible truth about Paul to be exposed and of course, we always knew that we would want that truth to come out in a hugely dramatic and explosive way.
"Shooting a colossal stunt with social distancing is no easy task and it took months of meticulous planning and the whole 'Emmerdale' team, proudly pulling together, to enable us to successfully achieve what are undoubtedly, our most ambitious and spectacular episodes of the last year.
"It's a highly charged, emotional, nail biting, holding-your-breath week of 'Emmerdale', that promises to leave devastation in its wake and irrevocably change the lives of some of our most loved villagers."
Director Dave Beauchamp admitted shooting the stunt would've been a "big challenge" even without the COVID protocols in place, and the team used stunt doubles and numerous green screen techniques to pull off the sequence on the outskirts of the village where the programme is filmed in Leeds.
He added: "The great thing about working on 'Emmerdale' is everyone there is so committed to making the show as good as possible.
"I knew I had to make it look and feel special. Every job I do I try to do this, but this felt an especially big challenge with a lot of people wanting it to be something to be proud of.
"We couldn’t have the real actors close for safety reasons so we used a mixture of stunt-doubles and green-screen shots to make you think the actors were in real jeopardy. I’m extremely pleased and relieved!
"It does look spectacular, and I am so happy for everyone involved.
"This would have been a big challenge in normal times, but to be able to achieve this with all the COVID protocols in place is amazing.
"There was a lot of planning and hard work involved and I think that comes across on screen."