Highland fans of BBC TV drama River City looking forward to new episodes with filming set to resume in August as coronavirus lockdown restrictions are eased
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Following a break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, plans are underway to see filming restart on River City in August.
New episodes of the soap are planned to air on the BBC Scotland channel and BBC One Scotland in late September, after filming was paused in March.
Due to social distancing measures – and the need to reduce the number of cast and crew filming scenes at any given time – the proposals will see the drama temporarily return as two half-hour programmes twice a week, from September, instead of its usual hour-long format.
In the coming weeks, plans are underway to complete some socially distant camera tests with guidance from the BBC Studios team working on EastEnders.
The last original River City episode aired on May 18 and fans of the show are currently taking a step back in time with River City Rewind on the BBC Scotland channel on Monday nights.
Commissioning editor for BBC Scotland said: "River City will continue to reflect the lives of our audience when it returns to BBC Scotland and BBC One Scotland after the summer.
"After such a seismic event in 2020, we can’t ignore coronavirus so when we’re back in Shieldinch we’ll see the effect of the pandemic on our characters rather than making it the main focus.
"River City’s comeback will see fans' favourite characters return with a bang and there’s lots of new dramatic and funny stories being written over the summer.”
Last week it was announced that already filmed episodes of EastEnders will run out this week.
The show will go off-air, but filming is expected to continue this month, using social distancing guidelines.
When it returns episodes will be just 20 minutes long instead of half an hour.
