Coronation Street appoints new producer and Emmerdale announces production restructure

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– Iain MacLeod appointed new Producer for Coronation Street
– Jane Hudson appointed Executive Producer for Emmerdale
– Kate Oates to produce second series of ITV Drama Bancroft starring Sarah Parish for Tall Story Pictures
– Kate Brooks and Laura Shaw to take up roles as Producers of Emmerdale

ITV today confirmed Iain MacLeod had been appointed as the new Producer of Coronation Street, following Kate Oates’ decision to leave the soap and move into drama series production. Kate is moving to work with ITV Studios owned label Tall Story Pictures, where she will produce the forthcoming second series of Bancroft, starring Sarah Parish.

ITV also announced that former ITV Drama Commissioner Jane Hudson has been appointed Emmerdale’s Executive Producer responsible for the future editorial and creative direction of the award-winning soap. Assistant Producer Kate Brooks becomes Producer alongside current Series Script Producer Laura Shaw who also becomes a Producer. Kate and Laura will produce blocks of episodes on a rotational basis and take responsibility for the day to day running of the programme. The Emmerdale appointments will take effect from the beginning of June, to coincide with Iain taking the helm at Coronation Street.

Kate and Iain leave their respective soaps in strong form, as each is up +5% year-on-year for volume, on both consolidated and overnights ratings. In 2018 to date, Emmerdale has increased its average audience in the consolidated ratings, pulling ahead to become the UK’s second most popular soap.

Coronation Street continues to be the UK’s most popular soap, with Good Friday’s 8:30pm episode scoring the highest rating in this slot in more than 4 years when 9.4m viewers tuned in to see Phelan confess his string of crimes to Eileen at the lighthouse. Across that week, Coronation Street delivered an impressive 40% share among 16-34’s, the soap’s highest share for this demographic since just before the tram crash in 2010.