Welcome to CORRIEDALE

Lives are changed for ever in an explosive soap first

- ALISON SLADE

Two worlds collide... literally! For the first time ever, characters from Coronation Street and Emmerdale will come face to face.

It's courtesy of Corriedale, an epic, hour-long crossover episode airing on Monday at 8pm to launch ITVI's 'soap power hour', a new scheduling pattern that sees the two shows transmitting each weeknight in 30-minute slots.

The drama takes place on a dark and stormy night on a road between Weatherfield and Hotten. Our cobbles and Dales residents have different reasons for travelling, but none of them reaches their intended destination. A multi-car collision gives rise to secrets and lies, murderous intent and death...

'It's very shocking, and then it's about the characters helping each other through adversity,' reveals Corriedale's director Duncan Foster. "The end sequence will make you cry - it's so sad, and yet, in another way, uplifting. It feels like there are new beginnings as the characters go back to their own worlds.' Here and overleaf, we reveal the key figures involved, and how they end up on that treacherous highway. Who's about to meet their maker? And as one person faces criminal charges, do they really deserve it, or have the soap police slipped up?

BECKY, BETSY AND LISA

Evil Becky has finally got what she wants (for now!) and is driving to Hull with Lisa and their daughter Betsy in order to catch a ferry to Rotterdam, ahead of a move to Spain. Lisa's still pining for Carla, but has been manipulated by her 'dead' wife into thinking Betsy's life is in danger if they stay in Weatherfield. She also believes that Carla wants nothing more to do with her, little realising Becky has been holding Mrs C hostage.