Sir John Betjeman famously said in the 1970s, "Manchester produces what
to me is the Pickwick Papers. That is to say Coronation Street." This comment
revealed more than just enthusiasm. The roots of what we now call soap opera can
be traced to the success of the 'partwork' novel in the 19th century, and this
serialised form of fiction became the norm for radio drama in the early part of
the 20th century, particularly in the United States. Because these early daily
radio serials were aimed at a predominantly female audience, they were generally
sponsored by household goods companies, detergents and soap being particularly
prevalent. This sponsorship, attached to the serials' particular style of
heightened emotion and melodrama, led to the label 'soap opera'.
The 'soap' designation stuck with the serials when they moved to television,
and their content and characteristics remained remarkably similar over the
decades in the US. In the UK however, the public service ethos of both BBC and
ITV ensured that soap opera had to evolve quickly, and the genre was rarely far
from arguments about quality in broadcasting.
Although the BBC made forays into continuing drama serials on radio, with
Mrs Dale's Diary (1948-69) and The Archers (1950-), and, later, on
television with The Grove Family (BBC, 1954-57), it was only when ATV launched
Emergency - Ward 10 (ITV, 1957-67) that British television had its first soap as
we would recognise it today. EW10's success was such that it immediately became
an open-ended, year-round serial, and the production team therefore had to
engineer an ongoing sequence of intertwined plots, sub-plots and cliffhangers
which allowed frequent story resolutions alongside newly-hatched storylines.
Old characters were written out, often by marriage or a trip away; killing
them off was less common, as this would rule out another frequent occurrence:
the unexpected return of an old character. The open-ended nature of the
narrative also allowed the audience to identify with characters more strongly,
as, in effect, the characters developed and aged alongside the audience. This
was not something a standard drama series with a finite number of episodes every
year could achieve. The result of this success and the audiences' fascination
with the characters made the lead actors some of British television's first
superstars, and this level of celebrity for soap stars has only become more
exaggerated over the years.
The BBC was unsure how to respond to EW10 (or indeed to commercial television
in general), but it eventually produced Compact (BBC, 1962-65), which, like
EW10, was a rather stilted, middle-class affair set in a workplace. This
immediately put it at a disadvantage, because ITV's newest continuing drama had
already changed viewer expectations. Coronation Street (ITV, 1960-) was the
creation of Tony Warren, an actor-turned-writer who wanted to bring his vision
of the North to the screen without compromise, and in doing so changed British
soap opera forever.
Realism became the watchword for 'quality' British soap, and this focus on
authenticity became such a powerful yardstick that eventually Coronation Street
would itself be condemned as unrealistic; in the 1980s Brookside (Channel 4,
1982-2003) and EastEnders (BBC, 1985-) would take up the tradition of realism by
explicitly addressing the breakdown of the kind of community that had featured
unchanged in Coronation Street for the previous 20 years. As well as the
purported realism, all of these shows aspired to, and often genuinely attained,
a quality that was missing from the more generic daily soaps: noted writers such
as Jack Rosenthal, Jim Allen,
Tony Jordan and Jimmy McGovern were allowed a
certain freedom; characters were more consistently drawn; and (initially at
least) storylines were low-key and believable.
Because of their perceived qualities, these shows avoided the broadcasting
authorities' general concern that, unless monitored carefully, soap opera would
drag television down to the lowest common denominator. But Crossroads (ITV,
1964-89) was a different matter. The brainchild of Reg Watson and Lew Grade,
Crossroads was the closest thing the UK had to the daily serials of the US, and
it was enormously popular. The Independent Television Authority and its
regulatory successor, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, were unimpressed,
and twice punished the show, eventually reducing it from five weekly episodes to
three. Other shows such as Weavers Green (ITV, 1966) were similarly frowned upon
and swiftly vanished. The reaction to Crossroads demonstrates that in British
television at the time, success was not the only criteria even in commercial
television, and that lowly soap operas were still expected to achieve a certain
standard.
In the 1970s and 80s, serials such as Coronation Street, EastEnders and
Brookside were seen as the 'least worst' soap operas in the world. Also, despite
fears to the contrary, the introduction of daytime broadcasting in 1972 led to
the creation of quality continuing dramas such as General Hospital (ITV,
1972-79) and Emmerdale Farm/Emmerdale (ITV, 1972-); both of these made the
transition into peak-time schedules. Other daytime shows that went on to have
long-term success included Pobol Y Cwm (BBC/S4C, 1974-) and Take the High Road
(ITV, 1980-2003), but Australian imports such as The Young Doctors (1976-83) and
Sons and Daughters (1982-87) also made an impression. Although the latter were
very different to the glossy and popular US imports of the time such as Dallas
(1978-91), Dynasty (1981-89) and Falcon Crest (1981-90), they were similarly
derided for featuring overripe performances, preposterous cliffhangers and
unbelievable storylines - all characteristics that were held up as a contrast to
quality homegrown serials.
The US series were vastly popular but arguably the greater lasting impact on
British soap opera came from Australia. Neighbours (1985-), a Reg Watson
production, was initially shown on weekday lunchtimes, but a daily tea-time
repeat drew huge ratings, and for a time Neighbours dominated the media,
probably reaching its apogee with the wedding of Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan)
and Charlene Mitchell (Kylie Minogue). ITV responded by importing the Australian
rival Home and Away (1988-) and the result was an early-evening schedule full of
cheap and cheerful daily serials. The audience for these shows had a younger
demographic, and gradually the traditional soaps began to try and appeal to the
same audience; a trend which eventually resulted in a new soap, Hollyoaks
(Channel 4, 1995-), aimed directly at teenagers. More importantly, the
broadcasting authorities were no longer in a position to intervene on issues of
quality, and the television companies were slowly able to increase the number of
serials until continuing drama became the dominant form on British television.
In the past the question of quality had plagued the BBC, and the corporation
struggled to develop a successful soap opera partly because it was never quite
sure if it wanted to be associated with a genre so heavily identified with
commercial television. Nonetheless, it had a reasonable success with The
Newcomers (BBC, 1965-69), the story of a family relocating from London to the
country, but after the misfire of The Doctors (BBC, 1969-71) the BBC abandoned
attempts at continuing drama for a number of years until, following a scheduling
experiment with Angels (BBC, 1975-83), it eventually struck gold with
EastEnders. This success gave a vital boost to the BBC's audience share, and
with a newfound enthusiasm for continuing drama, the corporation decided to
launch a new soap which, if successful, would dominate the ratings on alternate
nights to EastEnders.
The omens for a new show were not good. Granada had made a similar attempt
when it launched Albion Market (ITV, 1985-86) specifically to capture audiences
on Friday and Sunday nights as a complement to Coronation Street, but the show
managed just 100 episodes before folding. The BBC's own folly, Eldorado
(BBC, 1992-93), about British expats in Spain, fared no better and was widely
perceived as an expensive disaster (Eldorado is now a fixture in 'worst TV ever'
lists).
Both channels therefore, had little appetite to try and create another
peak-time serial, and so began the process of increasing the number of weekly
episodes for their existing shows, eventually reaching five episodes a week of
Emmerdale and Coronation Street, and four episodes of EastEnders. This expansion
has resulted in significant changes to production processes to the point where
(ironically) all three major soaps are made in a way that would immediately be
recognisable to the Crossroads production team of the 1970s. Many have argued
more episodes has meant lower standards, and a breaking down of the distinction
between the quality soaps and the traditional daily soaps.
However, soap opera was still a powerful influence on other genres.
Partly this was due to personnel: writers Jimmy McGovern, Paul Abbott
and Kay Mellor all worked long apprenticeships on soaps, and their series such as
Cracker (ITV, 1993-96; 2006), Band of Gold (ITV, 1995-97) and Clocking Off (BBC,
2000-03) demonstrate this: all were realistic, socially engaged, agenda-driven
and at least partly serial in form. Meanwhile, the production processes
and formats of soap began to infiltrate other drama: The Bill (ITV, 1984-2010)
became a continuous twice-weekly, thirty-minute series for a considerable time,
and Casualty (BBC, 1986-) and Holby City (BBC, 1999-) effectively became
open-ended, year-round shows. Even documentaries were not immune.
Shows such as The Living Soap (BBC, 1993), Airport (BBC, 1996-2005) and Driving
School (BBC, 1997) embraced soap characteristics to such an extent that a new
genre, 'docusoap', was born.
The popularity and relative cheapness of docusoap and other 'reality
television' forms has undoubtedly had an impact on soap audiences, as those
formats tend to display heightened emotion and exaggerated characters in a way
that might not even be credible in drama. However, although individual
serials have had their ups and downs over the years, soap opera itself remains
the dominant force in television drama. The increasingly varied audience
watch the serials in a more knowing way; viewers slip easily between character
names and actor names, and although extensive coverage in magazines and the
media generally means plots are known long in advance, the pleasure comes from
finally seeing how the events unfold, and, more importantly, recounting the
story to workmates and fellow viewers after the programme has finished.
But despite these changes, a powerful characteristic of the long-running soap
opera remains - as the programmes grow old, so we grow old. A subtle reference
to a past event can trigger a rush of memories, just as the death of a
long-running character can lead to consideration of your own mortality. This
unique aspect of the open-ended form continues to fascinate huge proportions of
the public, and the effect shows no signs of diminishing.
John Williams
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