Coronation Street and Emmerdale fans may not see the two long-running show’s cross over again, but it has been hinted there could be changes on the horizon for the programme’s we know and love.

Those who follow the drama on the Manchester-based cobbles know that the ITV soap joined forces with its Yorkshire counterparts, Emmerdale, for an epic TV event in early January.

The special, one-off episode saw the horror of a multi-vehicle collision unfold, as well as its aftermath, with characters from both Weatherfield and the Dales caught up in the dramatic incident.

Millions tuned in to watch the historic TV event, which was put together to celebrate a change to ITV’s soap schedule, with both Emmerdale and Corrie now airing in half hour installments between 8pm and 9pm every weeknight.

At the time of its release, Iain MacLeod, ITV’s Executive Producer for Continuing Drama, was asked whether the crossover between the two beloved shows was a sign of things to come, or just a celebration of the new schedule, to which he said: “It’s the latter, really.

“You know, people love Corrie, people love Emmerdale, they’re distinct entities. They have their own tone voice, their own sense of humour, and their own way of telling stories, and they wouldn’t blend long term at all I don’t think really. So brilliant to bring them together for this. But no there are no plans to do anything similar in future. Sorry to be a killjoy, for those of you who were hoping there was.”

Now, Iain revealed that a production overhaul is now on the way for the two soaps, which will improve the visual quality that fans see on screen, inspired by the success of Corriedale.

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“In terms of the look and feel of the shows, we’re in the midst of a big piece of work around evolving what they both look like,” he told the This Is Media City podcast, via Digital Spy. “I want there to be a somewhat consistent visual feel between the soaps, so you know when you turn on Emmerdale or turn on Corrie, that it’s an ITV soap – without homogenising it too much.”

“But we’re updating all of our kit, basically, in terms of cameras and post-production infrastructure and all the rest of it. There might [also] be some news around shifting from HD slightly upwards, in terms of the resolution that we’re using.”

But he also confirmed that a further combination of Corrie and Emmerdale “wouldn’t make sense”. He said: “The two shows do have a very different editorial voice and different sensibilities and the type of stories they tell are different. We had to tiptoe quite carefully through the minefield of blending it together and making sure it didn’t feel like some horrible Frankenstein’s monster of two desperate halves. It just wouldn’t work to do it long-term.”

Iain added: “And also, if you’ve got two incredibly successful brands, why would you blend them together? I don’t know that it would end up being more than the sum of its parts if you did it long-term. It doesn’t make any sense from my point of view to do it more permanently.”

But Iain did reveal that they are exploring the possibility of shorter digital-based spin-offs, which could see characters move in and out of their main shows they are used to being seen in. “We’re talking about things like micro-dramas, vertical dramas,” he said. “Is there any other parallel IP we can generate with a different set of characters, that feeds into and out of the main show?

“That will, we hope, engage a slightly younger audience and maybe drive those younger viewers into [the main soaps]? We’re exploring all kinds of options with that. The other one is, can we boil our 23-minute episodes down into a micro-drama? That’s proving more difficult, because a lot goes on in a soap!”