2026 Season - UK Episode Discussion

[Dan F]

So now that the old 'first look' pace is the official UK pace (and the one that us press are expected to follow now) we kick off the 2026 season on Friday 20th February—streaming on 5's on-demand platform from 6am and airing on 5Star at 6:30pm.

We begin the season just under 5 weeks behind the Australian airings.

 

[c120701]

One of the better season premiere’s of recent years, although Tane showing up to play the hero seemed tired to begin with, that ending actually has me on his side for the first time in a long time.

[James Martin]

Goodness me, the finale was a bit of an anticlimax but that made up for it!

It's been a while since we got a really cinematic episode. H&A just puts a gloss on it that the British soaps never quite pull off.  But I've always felt the decision they took 23 years ago when they first switched to HD to film the show in 25p (Corrie, Emmerdale & EastEnders all film in 50p) makes it unintentionally look more expensive than the British soaps do.

My only crit is the classic "Who dies" was once again someone nobody was emotionally invested in.  That's the thing they don't do better than the Brits.  Don't get me wrong, I've seen enough articles about production over 20+ years on here to know there's a ton of moving parts, but the show more often than not shies away from killing off a principal character in these big stunts. When Theo died in the UK finale that wasn't, it mattered because we'd emotionally invested into Theo. Lacey had to grieve all over again. 

I don't know how the contracts work, and I am not a script producer, but I'd have kept Juliet on for a few extra weeks and have Bree die in the crash.  It's why I always come back to the 2004 Olympic Siege at Leah's. By killing a major principal it had gravitas.  When Corrie had the tram crash they killed off at least two longstanding principals.  Emmerdale's plane crash killed off four.

But that was genuinely a tough watch.  I'm also old enough to remember that as a teenager the UK went through what felt like a series of high profile fatal train crashes, especially in the early days of privatisation.  I was genuinely frightened of railway travel at one point in a way I've never been about flying.  It certainly triggered a few core memories!

4 hours ago, c120701 said:

 that ending actually has me on (Tane's) side for the first time in a long time.

I have to confess to shouting "You bastard!" at my TV when Eddie bailed.  This is the woman he proposed to earlier that day.

It's going to make the love triangle very interesting.

And what does this mean for that other train wreck, Leah and Justin's marriage?

[CaptainHulk]

I always found H&A a bit more "true" when they shot on standard video. I'm used to HD but the previous style had a charm and things moved a bit faster.

As for Travel, Potters Bar had me paranoid for a while as did 9/11. 7/7 not so much as I rarely take tge ubdegroubd

As for Edale; Leonard wasn't much of a principal tbh, more of a plot device for Annie but Mark, Elizabeth and Archie were.

The thing with Season finales, they're often lacklustre compared to penultimate preceeding eps and Season premieres.

[Red Ranger 1]

So, yep, 2026 season begins. I believe the vagaries of the Oz broadcasts mean in real terms we're about six weeks behind them (ie the episodes being broadcast this week over there will be shown here in six weeks' time), although with them dropping back to four episodes a week shortly, that will likely go back and forth throughout the year.

I'm not sure I was that bothered about the "Who dies? No, really, who is that?" element of it. These things are always a let-down, even in the UK soaps, where they only tend to kill off characters who won't be missed. I think the recent Corriedale stunt killed off two characters, one a villain people were sick of anyway and the other had been announced as leaving months earlier so it was hardly a surprise, with plenty of opportunities for a genuine shock death dodged away from. Previous Emmerdale and Corrie stunts tend to do the same, only killing off characters who were pretty redundant anyway. So, yeah. Tane and Jo are obviously still in danger at the end, effectively Justin too and possibly Sonny, but I don't think any of us will be surprised if they get a similar "With one bound they were free" next episode.

But hyped-up publicity and plot armour aside, it did a decent job in storytelling terms of quickly scooping up all the characters and letting us know where they were and what shape they were in, and where we had to go from here. It managed to drag in a decent amount of characters. Those leaving people in danger come across as jobsworths in places, especially at the end when it comes down to Tane to save Jo because no-one else is going to and anyone who wants to is being actively prevented, but I guess the flipside is that if you do send someone else in, then that potentially means more people dying if it doesn't work. David did at least show a chink of humanity when he acknowledged Tane had helped Jo, however unorthodox it was. I assumed he meant Levi when he mentioned "your brother-in-law" to Cash, but technically Tane's his brother-in-law as well!

Alf and Leah get restricted to a couple of brief appearances but it emphasises Leah's continued change of attitude, even if Justin's still unaware of it. It's kind of ironic that right after she's stopped obsessing over Sonny he actually does end up in trouble. Abigail's the only other one that was considered necessary to send to hospital. It doesn't look life-threatening but we'll see how bad it is.

[c120701]

43 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I assumed he meant Levi when he mentioned "your brother-in-law" to Cash, but technically Tane's his brother-in-law as well!

I had similar thoughts.

Poor Sonny, he picked the wrong time to he injured, a few weeks earlier we’d have had two Doctors in the regular cast and he may have received preferential treatment.

Like Tane, Mac is another character who seems to be coming out of the train crash well too, helping out on the train and in the hospital.

Edited February 23 by c120701

[CaptainHulk]

My take on what goes probably in the writers room

Head Script Guy: *holding hat with character names in it* Who can we make punchably insufferable this week? 

Other Writer: *digs in at random* I got Remi! 

(This is also works with but not limited to Tane, Leah, Cash, Mac, Abby, Levi and/or Harper also)

Head Script Guy: Make it happen.

Edited February 24 by CaptainHulk

[H&Alover]

Just to con firm are we talking about episode 8636 here?

Despite the moans on H&A fb page I found the train crash well done, it being filmed  in the dark of a tunnel made it more exciting, if that is the right word.  

I don't know where these people saying it was Eddie who dies got their info from but they were all wrong.  They read 'So  and so dies?'  and take it as gospel.  There's going to be a who dies in Corrie where someone is killed and  who killed them.  May be going against the grain but I liked John in Emmerdale. 

Dana did well seeing as she was the only medic on board until Levi arrived and defied David's orders not to go in along with Tane. Kudos to Eden too.  Was there an actual guest list for all those on the train, for  Eden  to be able to check off, it looked pretty packed when it rolled into the bay. Not the most exciting of tasks but needed to be done. 

I thought I'd imagined seeing Leah and Alf at the hospital and Justin being rushed in, how unlucky can one bloke get, been shot, stabbed, had  a car fall on him, got trapped in that building,  has he got his own private room at ND's? 

I know it came across that Eddie behaved  a coward leaving Jo, but who of us can truly say how we'd behave in conditions like that.  He did lie to David though.  

There was a lot of walking wounded,   Abi being one and Remi another.   It was kind of ironic now Leah's stopped obsessing over Sonny, he's the one  of those seriously injured.  Dana did have to break the news to Holden Isaac had died so quite a miracle he and the driver were the only ones.  There must have been quiet a lot of adrenalin pumping through Tane when he did what he did.  He's going to feel it pretty soon. 

May be picky but isn't Tane Cash's ex brother-in-law?  

Edited February 24 by H&Alover

[CaptainHulk]

Anyone else feel today's and yesterday eps were kind of shown the wrong way round based on tone?

[c120701]

I like the Welcome to Summer Bay sign at the start of the opening titles now. Jo is still looking longingly at Dr Levi in “And from the very first moment I saw you…” though, it’d be nice if they considered the lyrics with the characters shown, but it wouldn’t be the first time the story being told didn’t suit the characters involved.