Three Emmerdale legends will return to the ITV programme for the show's 50th anniversary.
The long-running soap will mark the milestone birthday with a month of celebrations in October. Show bosses have revealed the episodes will centre around a devastating storm which will forever transform the fictional village.
Producer, Kate Brooks, told the ECHO: "It will leave a massive trail of destruction in its wake and some of our best loved villagers will be in peril. It's safe to say that the village won't be the same ever again because the impact this storm will have is massive."
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Kate revealed Aaron Dingle, Diane Sugden and Tracy Metcalfe will temporarily return to the village for the anniversary episodes. She said: "They'll be at the heart of some really big stories that will impact their lives and the lives of the characters they will leave behind."
The characters have all departed the Yorkshire Dales over the past year. Diane is played by Elizabeth Estensen and was last seen as she left the village to start a new life in Portugal. Aaron is played by Danny Miller, and the actor has kept busy after his stint on the ITV soap with a triumphant appearance on I'm A Celebrity.
Tracy is played by Amy Walsh and the actress exited the show in January as she prepared to have her first child with EastEnders' star, Toby Alexander-Smith. Emmerdale's executive producer told the ECHO what fans can expect when the characters return to the village.
Jane Hudson said: "Tracy is gonna come back with news of her own and how is Nate [Robinson] going to respond to that? Of course Aaron is back. Is he going to find out his mum is cheating on Paddy [Kirk] who he sees as a father? What if he discovers that Sandra [Flaherty] is not all about Liv [Flaherty]?"
The storm will take place across a special week of episodes and Kate gave the ECHO a behind the scenes insight into the epic stunt. She said: "In terms of filming it's quite unprecedented with the scale of what we're doing." Jane explained how the television disaster is a ground-breaking moment for British soaps.
She added: "One of the things we were keen to do is make sure our storm is in daytime so you can see what is happening. It is a wind storm rather than a rain storm. We've got some amazing machines being tested at the moment, which are epic.
"There is one element that nobody has done and no other soap could do it apart from Emmerdale because of where we are."
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