EastEnders fans are very happy after it was revealed that the popular BBC soap will return to being 30 minutes long in the New Year.
Bosses been producing reduced-length episodes of around 20 minutes since returning to screens last September following the Covid lockdown.
Recent episodes of the Walford-based drama have started to return to 30 minutes occasionally but now it's set to become more permanent with Monday, Thursday and Friday night episodes all being back at full length.
However, it's been claimed that Tuesday's episode will remain shorter to fit in with Holby City's 40 minute instalments.
Soap fans are still delighted though and took to social media to comment.
One wrote: "Great news. The 30 minute episodes are invariably so much better and give much more scope for writers to flesh out scenes and focus on character. "Stories benefit too because they're more detailed and don't seem so rushed."
Someone else tweeted: "Good to hear."
And for one viewer it clearly can't come quick enough as they posted: "What I am getting fed up with is the 20 min episodes!!! Come on EE get back to full length. Getting bored now…Otherwise put them on IP So can watch them in one go."
The news comes after EastEnders boss Piers Wenger blamed Covid protocols and shorter episodes for the show's ratings drop after viewing figures "hit a new low of 2.9million".
Speaking back in October, he said the show had "been particularly badly hit" but that he was "focused on getting the show back into its usual slot and making sure it's delivering".
"EastEnders has always been a BBC half-hour, whereas Corrie and Emmerdale are commercial half-hours and, therefore, shorter so they've been impacted slightly less by shooting with COVID protocols, but we are working to get back to [it]," he said at the time.
