Lancashire gets a surprise shout out ahead of the special Corriedale episode

On Monday night, a dramatic crossover episode featuring both Coronation Street and Emmerdale characters aired on ITV.

Corriedale followed the chaotic aftermath of a multi-vehicle collision, with characters from both shows caught up in the incident.

The episode revealed that the crash was caused by killer John Sugden and Becky Swain as the pair collided while driving on a country road, sealing the exit storyline of Coronation Street vicar Billy Mayhew, who died after being trapped in a minibus which went up in flames.

The episode also marked the end for Emmerdale’s John, showing him lying dead in the woods with a gunshot to the head before revealing his sister, Victoria Sugden, staring back at him.

Before all the dramatic going-ons however, eagle eyed Lancashire viewers were surely delighted to see that our Red Rose County received a special mention.

Yesterday evening, both Coronation Street and Emmerdale aired their own individual episodes at their usual times, setting the scene for the upcoming Corriedale special.

During the Emmerdale episode, the first to air of the three, a subtle nod was given to the cross over, with specifc reference to our county.

As Eric Pollard carried the newspaper stand to the front of the farm shop, viewers could see that the headline on display read ‘Yorkshire versus Lancashire in “the match of the centry”’.

The headline of course refers to both the War of the Roses and the clash between the Emmerdale and Coronation Street characters, with Emmerdale being in Yorkshire and Manchester historically being part of Lancashire.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, fans shared their delight at the nod, for instance a user called @antimvttr wrote: “the yorkshire vs lancashire poster is perfect #corriedale”

Another nod to the War of the Roses was then made when Emmerdale cahracter Kim Tate picked up a bunch of red and white roses.

X user @deridrescig commented: "completely obsessed with these gorgeous nods to Corriedale as someone who is desperately proud to be from the north. The roses especially were a great touch"

The dramatic episode started with DS Lisa Swain answering a call from Carla Connor, before demanding that Becky pull over.

However during the argument they collided with John, who was being held at gunpoint by Aaron Dingle, who told him to turn himself in to police.

Instead, John removed his hands from the wheel.

Moments later a minivan taking Coronation Street residents, including David and Shona Platt, Tracy Barlow and Asha Alahan, back home from Debbie Webster and Ronnie Bailey’s wedding swerved into the mess, before Mackenzie Boyd and Charity Dingle collided into the pile-on.

As residents pulled themselves out of the minivan, Billy was seen stuck in the driver’s seat and despite Theo Silverton appearing to try to help free him, viewers watched him trap the vicar and escape, before the van went up in flames.

Later on in the episode, as paramedics made it to the scene, Lisa was being treated in an ambulance where Becky revealed she was going to go away for a while.

However as she leant in to kiss Lisa goodbye, she handcuffed her and arrested her on suspicion of theft, fraud and kidnapping.

Meanwhile on the side of the road Robert Sugden and Aaron agreed to spend the rest of their lives together, before the scene cut to John who, after narrowly escaping the crash, was seen pointing a gun to their heads from the bushes.

However, instead of shooting he makes a run for the woods.

Despite Aaron telling Robert to leave it to the police to catch John, he went searching anyway, and a scramble between the brothers ended up with John escaping before Cain Dingle, who was following behind, got shot.

The residents made it to the Hotten General Hospital and despite a pregnant Shona appearing to be OK, with signs that the baby was still kicking, the episode ended in a dramatic twist that saw David collapse to the floor from a seizure.

Meanwhile Cain survived the gunshot but was told that he had cancer before a mysterious man in a hood was heard speaking on the phone and said: “I am terminating the contract. I’ve got something I need to do.”

In a shocking twist, the man’s identity was quickly revealed as Emmerdale’s Graham Foster, who returned after being killed off in an episode in 2020.

The hour-long special marked the launch of ITV’s new “soap power hour” scheduling pattern for the two shows.