<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Emmerdale will broadcast a live episode for its 40th anniversary, Digital Spy can exclusively confirm. The special broadcast will take place in October to celebrate the ITV1 soap&amp;#039;s milestone. Show stars Jason Merrells and Gaynor Faye, who play Macey siblings Declan and Megan, revealed the news to Digital Spy&amp;#039;s showbiz reporter Anna Williamson on the red carpet at the British Soap Awards at the weekend.  Merrells commented: &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve got the 40th anniversary of the show [coming up], it&amp;#039;s got a live ep so everybody&amp;#039;s positive about that. It should be pretty good, the stories are getting stronger and everything&amp;#039;s hotting up.&amp;quot; Meanwhile, Faye predicted that the live broadcast would feature &amp;quot;fireworks&amp;quot;. She explained: &amp;quot;None of us actually know whether we&amp;#039;re involved or not\u2026 I think they&amp;#039;re going to try and involve everybody because it&amp;#039;s such a celebration and such an achievement to get to the 40th year. So fingers crossed everybody will be involved.&amp;quot; In a statement released exclusively to Digital Spy this afternoon (May 1), an Emmerdale spokesperson commented: &amp;quot;In celebration of its 40th birthday, Emmerdale will be going live for the first time for an episode in October. &amp;quot;Series producer Stuart Blackburn has already confirmed that the anniversary will be a week long celebration of &amp;#039;must see TV featuring two weddings, one of which will be the most unexpected we have ever seen, plus the birth of two babies&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;Further highlights and the date and length of the episode will be announced on a separate occasion.&amp;quot; Soap fans saw Coronation Street go live for its 40th and 50th anniversaries in 2000 and 2010 respectively, while EastEnders broadcast a live special for its 25th birthday. &amp;gt; Emmerdale boss teases &amp;quot;spectacular&amp;quot; anniversary plans &amp;gt; Emmerdale: Character teasers, gossip from producer Stuart Blackburn &amp;gt; Read more Emmerdale news and spoilers "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/emmerdale/news/a379403/emmerdale-live-episode-confirmed-for-40th-anniversary-video/>