Hollyoaks will return to its regular broadcast pattern in the week beginning January 18, Channel 4 has confirmed.

Due to coronavirus, the broadcaster reduced the number of episodes shown per week from five to three at the end of last March, subsequently dropping to just two a week before going off the air completely in July.

The soap returned in September with four new episodes a week but will go back to five episodes a week starting January 18 for the first time in almost 10 months.

As a result, Hollyoaks Friday Favourites, which has seen classic episodes rebroadcast on E4, will come to an end with an episode from 2013 on January 15.

The news means that EastEnders is now the only major soap not to be back to pre-coronavirus production levels, with its four episodes a week currently running to between 20 and 25 minutes each instead of the usual half hour.