Fans of one of reality TV’s most established show will know that it’s normally about this time of year that we start looking forward to a new series of TOWIE.
Within the first few months of the year, the cast will start to pepper their Instagram Stories with BTS and filming posts, and we’ll know that the first whispers of life on set will begin to circulate, with rumours of love triangles and fall outs getting us all excited about the series ahead.
But this year things seem a little quiet on the TOWIE front, and it's been confirmed that bosses are suspending filming of the 30th series.
“Owing to ongoing challenges posed by Covid, the forthcoming series of The Only Way Is Essex will now be postponed until later in the year,” said ITV and Lime Pictures in a joint statement released to The Sun.
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According to the same publication, the cast have been left “devastated” by the turn of events as plans to make the milestone anniversary extra special have been put on hold.
“The cast are obviously gutted as they were looking forward to getting back to filming,” said the source.
“They were told the difficult news this evening but have been reassured it will be worth the wait once the show returns. The next series will be a must watch as everyone is desperate to make up for lost time.”
CHECK OUT: from schlongs to vajazzles - TOWIE's most iconic moments
CLOSER: TOWIE's most iconic moments - SLIDER
1 of 17Amy gives Sam a vajazzle
There's no better place to start than the birth of the 'vajazzle', a crystal encrusted pattern that can be applied to a woman's nether regions to make their bits looks fancy and elegant. Beaut babe. After Amy Childs and Sam Faiers filmed this scene and it had aired, this was the only thing the nation was talking about, with salons across the country starting to offer the beauty treatment so fans of the show could replicate their idols and be a true Essex women.
2 of 17Kirk calls Maria an extra
Cast your minds back to when Kirk Norcross and Lauren Pope were a thing (dig deep guys) and Kirk fell out with Lauren's friend Maria Fowler. Obviously, the pair were fighting over literally nothing, but that didn't stop them, as they came head to head in a bar and Kirk ended up calling Maria an "extra". Savage. Things then soured further as Maria started to date Kirk's DAD Mick Norcross, joking that she was Kirk's step-mum.
3 of 17Arg buys Lydia a pig
When James 'Arg' Argent and Lydia Bright joined series 2 of the reality show, they instantly became fan favourites, with their romantic love story wooing the nation. So when Arg bought Lydia a micro pig named Mr Darcy to declare his love for her, they both made us think, 'Would our partner do that for us?'. However, it turned out Mr Darcy wasn't a micro pig and was in fact a normal pig, outgrowing Lydia's back garden and having to be sent to a farm to live.
4 of 17Lauren and Mark get engaged
How could we forget the first ever engagement of TOWIE, with Mark Wright and Lauren Goodger looking loved up and ready to take on the world. They'd been together nearly ten years before they joined the show and their love seemed to blossom as Mark popped the question, confirming his love for the Essex beauty. There was just one thing, they got engaged in a car park. Classy.
5 of 17Sam declares her love for Mark
But there was drama just around the corner, as Sam decided she was in love with the hunk and admitted it to his face, making him question whether he wanted to be engaged to Lauren anymore.
6 of 17Lauren pushes Mark into a swimming pool
Literally, the most iconic moment. Having been questioning his relationship and engagement to Lauren, Mark was having doubts, as was Lauren, after rumours of cheating began to surface and cracks started to show. As Mark headed to a pool party with the rest of the cast, leaving Lauren at home, she was having none of it and decided to unexpectedly turn up. Mark was so surprised and Lauren kicked off, following Mark's comments that she should go back home. She ended up pushing him in the pool and the pair split.
7 of 17Lucy and Mario get engaged
TOWIE has seen many of these but Lucy Mecklenburgh and Mario Falcone's engagement was the most romantic, extra TOWIE scene to air. Away on holiday, sunbathing on a yacht, Mario pulls out a whopper of a diamond and asks Lucy to be his wife. Despite the ups and downs in their relationship, it seemed like the pair were finally settled....
8 of 17Lucy swilling Mario with red wine at a white party
Cue the drama. Lucy and Mario's relationship becomes plagued with cheating rumours, breaks down and they eventually call it quits. Will there ever be a happy ever after on this show? Probably not.
9 of 17Harry's 18th birthday party
A favourite party moment of ours was when Harry Derbridge hosted a fancy dress themed party for his 18th, with many of the cast member going over the top (of course). Harry turned up as Lady Gaga, wowing his attendees but let's not forget the late Nanny Pat who turned up as the actual Queen. Icon.
10 of 17Gemma telling Arg, "You ain't ever gong to get this candy
After Arg and Lydia broke up then got back together then broke up then got back together then finally ended their relationship, Arg moved on with Gemma Collins, otherwise known as the GC. Yet again, it looked like the pair were made for each other but things soon spiralled out of control and the relationship catastrophically ended, with Gemma turning up in front of everyone at a pool party, whacking off her caftan and shouting "You ain't ever going to get this candy". James just stood in the middle of the pool, mouth opened, shocked. We still haven't recovered.
11 of 17Sam and Joey have their first date
Sam and Joey Essex were an unlikely match on TOWIE, seen as though Joey was a few years younger than Sam. However, the pair seemed to get on like a house on fire and decided to see whether their friendship would work as a relationship and Joey took Sam on their first date. But he took her to a dump. His reasoning was that it would be "different" and "cool", but it ended up being stinky and gut wrenching instead.
12 of 17Gemma leaving Mick a pie, and him pieing her off
Kirk's dad Mick was a catch back in the day, owning the legendary club Sugar Hut, where all the cast members would party on and off screen. One cast member who wanted a bit of Mick was Gemma, who lovingly made him a pie and left it on his doorstep to win his affections. However, it didn't seem to work as Mick said he didn't like Gemma in that way and pied her off with her pie. Ouch.
13 of 17When Gemma held an exorcism
Gemma is known for her "GC" persona - the larger than life, savage and diva princess. But in one episode, Gemma decided enough was enough and wanted to show the real her. Therefore, the took the logical conclusion to having an exorcism to get "the GC" persona out of her body. You cannot write this stuff.
14 of 17Joey and Ricky fight in a shop
After Ricky Rayment joined the show, there wasn't an instant connection between him and Joey, after the pair were talking about each other behind each others backs. It all came to a head at the re-opening of Lauren Goodger's beauty salon, with the pair scrapping inside and outside the shop, knocking products over as they fought onto the high street. The fight was seen as so bad, Essex Police were called to stop the pair from fighting. They later apologised to each other and made up.
15 of 17Gemma and Ferne's diva fight
The fight of all fights. In a quiet, suburban town sit three women as they watch Gemma and Ferne McCann have a war with words over who has "earned their divaship". Nothing else needs to be said, except from TV gold.
16 of 17Bobby and Harry's thong schlongs
When Bobby Norris joined TOWIE, he brought all the sass that the show needed. However, he also showed a lot of ass when he, and boyfriend at the time Harry, decided to wear a unique form of swimwear, which we're fondly calling 'Shlong Thong'. It really covered nothing and sent viewers at home wild, leading to some viewers putting in formal complaints.
17 of 17Megan kicks off at Pete
After Megan McKenna's appearance on Celebrity Big Brother, TOWIE bosses were quick to sign up the TV babe, and it just so happened she'd started dating Pete Wicks, which meant she had the perfect storyline when joining the show. Their love seemed to blossom, with the pair becoming 'Head Couple' on the show for nearly two years. However, the cracks soon started to show after it was revealed Pete had been sexting other girls, leaving Megan extremely angry. This led to her epic outburst on the beach in Marbella, blowing her other TV tantrums out of the water. "Go be single!" she screamed. We can still hear it echoing around the world now.
Despite facing some set-backs due to the pandemic, The Only Way is Essex actually got away relatively unscathed in previous years as plenty of long-running TV programmes were forced to cancel altogether.
Most notably, the country’s longest running soaps, like Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders slashed their running schedules in half and had to find creative ways to bring viewers their soap fix after filming was ground to a halt during full lockdowns in the UK.
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Even after filming resumed, cast were still required to maintain social distancing in many cases which can still be seen in scenes airing today, resulting in some awkward staging and less-than-believable interactions.
Meanwhile, two of the most popular shows on the ‘box, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!and Strictly Come Dancing, also had to majorly adjust production, with Strictly forming strict social bubbles and doing away with their studio audience, while I’m A Celeb abandoned the Australian jungle and relocated to a Welsh castle (involving a whole new story arc and challenges) thanks to Australia’s strict travel restrictions.
Speaking in May 2020, one of TOWIE’s longest running cast members Pete Wicks predicted, “I think TOWIE can do social distancing. It's completely different to Love Island. Celebs Go Dating...it'd be hard to date with social distancing, wouldn't it?”
Turned out he was right - when he featured on the first and only virtual and socially distanced series of Celebs Go Dating later that year, it was awkward (thankfully it's just returned to E4 in its usual format - yay!).
“But TOWIE we film a couple of hours a day and generally a lot of it is in open spaces,” he continued. “The chances of TOWIE coming back are fairly high I would have said, in comparison.
“We were just about to start before lockdown. We should be filming now. We're not entirely sure what's happening with that.”