Page 134 - Soaps News Today

Theyve got nothing else to do. and this is why we used to... we used to lose 1.5—2 million viewers as soon as the clocks went forward and people realised they had an extra hour of daylight to go outside. but these days, you know, people are wasting 30 minutes, 45 minutes going through a streaming platform, trying to find something to watch, and they give up. so theres an audience there with an appetite for drama that is ready to be picked up on, you know, so ijust think its kind of like findin...

Slightly more on iplayer than the itv shows are with the itv hub, though. well, lets have a look at the creative process. the turnaround time for making soaps is really fast, as i understand it. from commissioning a story to transmission is around 16 weeks for a daily show like eastenders, 20 weeks for a weekly show like casualty. phil, when youre tackling, you know, issues, really sometimes very thorny issues, like sexual assault or drugs, you must know that its going to cause a stir. what do y...

That makes us feel insecure." and he was absolutely right, because you can never agree... i mean, my character years ago, thank god, you know, i was on a life support machine in birmingham general hospital, having been knocked over by a bse—ridden cow. iwas... my character bought an aeroplane, an aeroplane. i said to the producer, "does it crash?" because... i didnt care, but, you know, no mileage for me as an actor, the things going to plummet into the ground! unfortunately for all of us, he ...

It shows that the bbc isnt turning its back on continuing drama, its pretty much replacing like—for—like but in a different location... south to north. yes. and in the case of neighbours, again, that was completely different reasons. it was still doing very well. it was one of the top rated shows on channel 5, even though it airs in the daytime — or aired in the daytime. wasnt bringing in enough advertising revenue, right? yes, it was advertising revenue. obviously, daytime advertising rev...

He beat britains anthony joshua on a split points decision. the fight in saudi arabia was a rematch of usyk�*s victory in london in september. now on bbc news, the media show. hello. in march this year, the bbc gave one of its biggest soaps, holby city, a do not resuscitate order after 23 years. injuly, channel 5 decided we no longer needed good neighbours and the sun went down on ramsay street after 37 years. but cast your minds back to christmas day, 1986. anyone remember this? this, my swee...

Happy christmas, ange. that was dirty den handing angie watts divorce papers after shed lied to him about having six months left to live. 30 million people tuned in to watch that episode of eastenders, more than half the population. today, the show averages between 4 and 6 million per episode, much of it through iplayer. so do soaps matter any more? whats their place in the cultural landscape? are we going through a messy den and angie divorce with them? or is it still enduring love, like scott ...

Of being written out of anything. itjust means they stop being paid. so...whether youre going to be blown up orjust going to the pub and never seen again, the cheques will not be there the following month if youre not recording. in fact, i remember when siobhan, my mistress in the archers, tragically died, the week... i mean, she was dying of cancer, it was terrible. and the actress, caroline lennon... the week before, i mean, barely... she barely said a word. she was just breathing. and they ha...

"no, im not doing that." you were saying, "yes, i am." the job was to get the biggest numbers that we could for channel 4. you know, and its quite interesting listening to the numbers now, cos if wed have reached some of those numbers back in the day, wed have been pulled, you know? but i was quite interested listening... when you threw out those figures about the time from storyline to script, i think thats one of the big problems thats happened — you know, that people have forgotten how diff...

Yeah. yeah, obviously. i mean, you know, i used to be accused of sort of doing the cynical, ratings—grabbing exercises. and, you know, my point to the media is, "and your point is what?" so you werent saying, "no, im not doing that." you were saying, "yes, i am." the job was to get the biggest numbers that we could for channel 4. you know, and its quite interesting listening to the numbers now, cos if wed have reached some of those numbers back in the day, wed have been pulled, you know? but i...

Ok, well, and you do it well, definitely. lets just have a quick last thought about the future of soaps. you know, the bbc has reportedly spent £87 million on the new eastenders set and theyve got a new executive producer, chris clenshaw, also on board. so they clearly are signalling that eastenders is, you know, on the up. emma, do you think things are looking brighter for the residents of walford? its difficult to be i that optimistic after the conversation weve been having. but i still think...