Julia Goulding says ‘big stunt’ in Corriedale left her feeling like Lara Croft

By Hannah Roberts, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

Soap star Julia Goulding has said a “big stunt” they filmed for the Coronation Street and Emmerdale crossover episode left her feeling like fictional adventurer Lara Croft.

Corriedale, airing on Monday night, will show Goulding’s character, Shona Platt, being tended to at the roadside by Emmerdale paramedic Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) following a multiple vehicle crash.

Shona, who is pregnant, appears alongside her husband David, played by Jack P Shepherd, and more than a dozen other residents appear across the episode as well.

Asked what it was like to film the crossover episode, Coronation Street star Goulding told BBC Breakfast: “Crazy. It really was, I think, just the more into the shoot that we got, the more I realised how much had gone into making this episode.

“We were on the night shoots for, I think, a grand total of six weeks. I personally, was on for about three. And then the before, the after… the whole thing has been really exciting.”

Goulding added: “There was a big stunt. I was in the mini bus. I had a harness on.

“Felt very much like Lara Croft, and for that day, luckily, I didn’t have to wear the baby bump either.

“We had to do a really big physical warm-up before getting into the harnesses, because we were hanging by obviously different parts of our body that aren’t used to taking our full weight.

“And then Duncan (Foster), our director, he was marvellous, because he sort of kept us out of the harnesses as much as possible so we weren’t in pain. But yeah, it was great. It was really fun to do.”

Iain MacLeod, executive producer for continuing drama at ITV and ITV Studios, said the episode was inspired by his hatred of the M62 and jokingly blamed superhero franchise Marvel for the soap crossover.

He said: “It started from my dislike of the M62 motorway between Manchester and Leeds, in all seriousness.

“I’d spent about the last 10 years stuck on the M62 between Manchester and Leeds, and Corrie is obviously very Manchester, and Emmerdale is very Yorkshire, very Leeds.

“And I thought: well, actually, why don’t we draw on my negative experiences of commuting and find some drama in that? And so it was born from many, many hours of me sitting in traffic on the M62.”

MacLeod added: “I blame Marvel. They gave us the idea. ‘Well, hang on, if we’ve got all these superheroes, why not put them all in the same thing?’

“But also, I think it partly coincided with me taking over as the sole creative lead for both soaps. So I was then the decision-maker that was uniquely positioned to do that, whereas before, they’d operated slightly as separate entities.”

The hour-long special will air on January 5 at 8pm on ITVX following two half-hour episodes of each soap, with Emmerdale on at 7pm and Coronation Street at 7.30pm.

Its release will also mark the launch of ITV’s new “soap power hour” scheduling pattern for the two shows.