to touch on the Marc anwar debacle, if Corrie had done a tommy duckworth and edited out all Sharif's scenes the show would have struggled to be about 5 mins long!

Can't remember it being discussed before but do you think that soaps would have a contingency plan for these type of occurrence's

in my working world we have an empty office space in a town about 20 miles away where we could go and work should anything happen to the office. So it is standard for businesses to have a plan.

I wonder if Corrie or the other soaps do.

Just to add to the discussion what would your contingency be if you were in charge and you had a situation where you had to edit out a character immediately but who was planned to feature heavily for weeks.

Be realistic, production takes time, writing, filming, editing etc etc

Use sock puppets instead?

The Australian Soaps seem to bring in any old random to replace the actor if they've had to depart immediately. It doesn't really work over here tbh, we cannot seem to grasp recasts as well.

EE had Issues with the guy whole played Dan F when he had visa problems. They rewrote scripts and it was diabolical.

I meant if immediately you couldn't show the actors scenes that were planned for that evenings episode.

I think re-casts need to be done more so they become acceptable Aussie style

I think they should have a load of random filler scenes ready go as back-up. Scenes that could be standalone (not relating to anything going on in the show) for example, two characters in Dev's shop talking about a TV show/ film/place they've been too etc, just 'small talk' like people do.

I think the sock puppet would have more talent than the guy who plays Shakil

To address your question OP, I think the best contingency would be to re-edit immediate episodes to remove the problematic scenes and replace them with scenes from the next few episodes. it might mean some storylines move quicker and there are time of day problems, but that would be the easiest solution - condense usable scenes from the next 4 episodes into a broadcast able 2 episodes to give yourself time to plan. In the meantime, I suppose you'd need to shoot new scenes/storylines to fill the gaps later down the line.

Honestly, as show runner in the Corrie situation, I'd have no problem recasting the role. Let the scenes play out as they are, re cast, and then start shooting scenes with the new actor ASAP. Have a few weeks' gap on screen where the character isn't seen and then continue as planned with the new actor in the role. SURELY that's better than a hasty poor rewrite?!

Tommy Duckworth never had his scenes removed after Chris Fountain was sacked.

I thought he did?

But just googled, interesting that