Some of Emmerdale's biggest stars could make a shock return this year to mark the ITV soap's 50th anniversary.

The show will be celebrating its milestone birthday later this year, and execs have promised there will be a whole month of celebrations to mark the occasion - with huge secrets set to be revealed.

Speaking to The Mirror and other press, the show's producers teased: "We’ve been thinking about the 50th all the time.

"I think we probably held back some of our big ideas while Covid was so prominent in our lives because we didn’t know what we could achieve. But Super Soap Week has really shown us what we can do."

As well as huge stunts, bosses want to create big stories behind them.

They added: "And as brilliant as stunts are - we’ve got to have the stories to back up those stunts.

"We can blow up anything but if there’s no story behind it - what’s the point? Our focus at the moment is to really build those stories so when we get to our Golden Month of Celebration, we’ve got secrets that the viewers are desperate to be revealed."

They also teased a baby would be arriving in the Dales - but viewers will have to wait until it airs to find out who it belongs to.

They shared: "There’s probably going to be a birth in there perhaps - babies in soaps are either born on programme celebrations or Christmas so there’s going to be one of those happening.

"And we’ll do something epic - there will be an epic stunt because we’re well-known for that."

Teasing some huge emotional stories for the soap's biggest characters, they added: "But at the heart of it, the best loved characters in our show are really going to be tested in some big emotional stories. It’s really key to us that whatever happens in the 50th - the fallout is huge. This will continue and take us into 2023."