Sue Devaney

ITV’s flagship soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale will join forces in an unprecedented, one-off special episode to launch the broadcaster’s new power hour of soap which begins on ITV1 and STV in January 2026.

How long is forever? When the imprisoned Palamon and Arcite vow eternal friendship, they don’t expect that anything will come between them. But then from their cell window they see the beautiful Emilia, and their priorities take a sudden and violent turn. In this late romance, Fletcher and Shakespeare examine love in all its fluid and complex forms. Barrie Rutter, recipient of the 2003 Sam Wanamaker Award, directs his first play since stepping down as Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides. Inspired by the play’s Morris language and references, The Two Noble Kinsmen is set in pastoral ‘Merrie England’ and brought to life with original music composed by acclaimed folk musician Eliza Carthy, and dance choreographed by Ewan Wardrop.

Four middle-aged men concoct a scheme which involves them insuring their lives, so that if one of them dies the others inherit a tidy sum. Suddenly fate throws a darkly comic chain of mishaps their way:

Three married couples discover that, through a legal technicality, they are, in fact, not actually married in the eyes of the law. This was the fifth television film version of this play by J.B. Priestley made by the BBC.