Page 138 - Soaps News Today

So i think thats a very good example of soaps trying to do something different, trying to have an appointment—to—view story that will hopefully bring in some lapsed viewers. ok, and in ourfinal minutes — seconds, even — i was going to ask a question for you all. phil alluded to it earlier, perhaps, but id start with you, phil. if you were pitching a brand—new soap today — perhaps you even are — what would it be? ijust think itd need to be something that reflects britain right now. ...

And with autumn coming, which i think is a big time for soaps as they start, you know, sowing the seeds for those christmas storylines, daniel, what can we look forward to this year? what do you know about any big stories coming up or what we should be watching? well, the big one is emmerdale turns 50 in october, and they have announced that they will have a big storm storyline. so, a deadly storm will hit the village and various characters will be in peril... so some actors are going to be worr...

Wed lived her ups and downs, and then it just absolutely was a sucker punch. - so i think thats where . they can be so powerful. recently, soaps have had - this obsession with gangsters, ive noticed, all these things, and ijust think, _ "thats totallyjust kind of" — as phil was alluding to — - "the wrong way to go." we want to see our. own lives reflected — in a heightened way. were not looking for. everything to be super realistic, but you wantl something that you can sort of latch onto. ...

Itjust becomes... itjust becomes wallpaper in the end, you know? now, lets think about being in soaps. lets talk about being in them. charles, you joined the archers in 1975, almost 50 years ago, so i guess youve got the best insight of what its like to be in a soap. i mean, how much say do you get over your character? i mean, what happens if you dont think a storyline�*s right for brian? well, im afraid you bite the bullet and say the words. actors are given the scripts, in television, they l...

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 if the things going to plummet into the ground! unfortunately for all of us, he or she said, "no, it doesnt crash. "youre all right." thank god, yeah! i want to get on with phil onto sort of the actual process of putting soaps together. but, daniel, jus...

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 and charlene? im joined by sir phil redmond, creat...

Of revisiting the same storyline with a different perspective, with different characters. because we didnt have a list on the wall that says "now we do drugs" or whatever, it was whatever was growing within society. what were people actually concerned about? you know, i mean, right now, you know, there could be fantastic storylines coming out of the pandemic, coming out of brexit — the worry about the cost of living, you know, immigrants coming in, ukraine. these are all fantastically fertile ...

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 difficult they are, actually, to make. and our storylines always were two years in the making. you know, wed have a two—year plan, then an 18—month, then i2—month long—term planning, and then a storyline conference every mo...

Watched it for decades and were still devastated it was going. you know, the relationship| we have with these soaps — we want them to be there even if were not actuallyl engaging with them any more. theres so much nostalgia that feeds into it. - in terms of whos taking - the viewers away, i dont think its as simple as "everyones watching love island" - or "everyones - watching im a celeb." its not that- straightforward... theres just a lot more choice. theres so much more choice! you know, i g...

Huge drops in audience numbers in recent years. youve criticised soaps for not tackling big social issues like they used to. do you think its the end of the road for them? i think in the current climate, it looks quite pessimistic, but i believe that they shouldnt be, because you have to go all the way right back to the cave drawings and people have always had this insatiable desire for storytelling. and, you know, you can run all the way through history, through the greek tragedies, etc, throug...