Emmerdale are planning a very special episode for International Women’s Day

Emmerdale are planning a special episode for International Women's Day - with a female-only cast.

The long-running soap's new boss, Jane Hudson, shared the news during an Emmerdale press event on Tuesday. She took over the role after previous showrunner, Iain MacLeod, moved to Coronation Street. Former assistant producer, Kate Oates, and the series' script producer, Laura Shaw, will both now share the title of producer. The duo produce blocks of episodes on a rotation, taking responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the soap. Jane revealed that the episode, which will air on March 8 next year, will not only have an all-female cast but will be produced, directed and written by women. She explained [via Metro]:

"We're doing something rather special on March 8, International Women's Day, now we've got two female producers and a female executive producer – which is the first time a soap has had an all-female team

"We are going to have an episode that is produced by a female, directed by a female and written by a female. The entire cast will be female including all the background artists and we will have almost an entire female crew.

"We're really excited to be doing it, to be recognising IWD and do our bit for it."

Jane, who joined the series in June, joked that the "men are loving it", adding:

“What they don’t realise is that we’re going to give some of our males the traditional female roles for the day, so we’ll all be bringing our kids in.”

• The episode will air on Friday, March 8, 2019.