The 1960's saw a cultural revolution in British drama and media. Not only was Coronation Street introduced but Britain saw its first daily TV soap, namely Crossroads. It was low budget and poorly acted out - but managed a plethora of viewers by the time it was killed in 1988.
All soap operas follow certain guidelines, called conventions. One of the most important conventions of soaps is that they are continuous. For example, Eastenders has been running since 1984. There are several other conventions.
Most soaps have up to 6-7 storylines at one time, constantly swapping between each storyline in each episode. Soaps have many characters in them, usually a whole village or estate full of people, with each person having their own storyline.
Soaps can be called serials - the stories are continuous and run from one episode to the next, keeping people interested by staging conflicts or events which could affect some or just one of the characters. These events usually last for a few episodes. Most, if not all, stories in soaps are interwoven - or have some type of relation. Viewers are always kept in suspense. Soaps are ended at a climax, so you will watch the next episode. Why they do this I don't know, In fact I'm sure many viewers feel the same as me. It's annoying. But they obviously can't risk losing the viewers. Therefore, it has become a convention in the soap world. In soaps, each story has a different meaning - some aren't as big and important as
the dramatic storylines. For example, Eastenders uses funny scenes with Billy or Robbie. Robbie's funny character trivialises the day-to-day rigmaroles of a growing young man. Eastenders uses these 'funny scenes' to balance the serious stories and let the major ones build up.
Soaps like Eastenders, Brookside and sometimes Coronation Street cater for people of all ages, Usually putting a young person or funny scene in. Only recently has Brookside made a storyline that involved a young teenager (12+ Years Old). The Anthony story (Bullying) involves a grave but truly serious problem that most young people are a victim of sometime in their lives.
Another convention is the location where the soap is based, For example, Eastenders is based in a small square in East London, and Brookside is based in a Merseyside close. Coronation Street is based in a small back street in Manchester. Each soap has a meeting place to identify it by - Eastenders has the Queen Victoria pub and Coronation Street has the Rovers Return.
There have been soaps based in other countries - take Eldorado for example. It seems British viewers only like soaps from their home country, or ones that are relevant to the way they live. To tell you the truth, Eldorado was badly acted out - but still, British viewers prefer a soap they can relate to in some way.
Soaps are always based on Issues in Peoples lives, like relationships, poverty, or growing old. They usually cater for all ages in this aspect: Teenage characters have storylines based on what it's like for the average teenager, issues in their life, like relationships, sexuality and family problems (coping with divorces, etc.) They also include major life events like births, deaths and marriages.
One authentic convention in soaps is that they follow the real calendar… for example, if there's a royal event, the soap would feature this in it's storyline. Only sensitive subjects (like Diana Princess' Death, or the September 11th Disaster) aren't featured. They also feature Christmas specials and New Year specials. What they do feature are dramatic, short-term stories, like fires or in Brooksides case, "Mad Religious Cults"!
It's usually murder, fire or a drug-bust. Some of these stories have sparked real life action. For example, when Dierdre Rachid from Coronation Street had the dramatic "court case" storyline, people reacted when she was sentenced to go to prison for what her-two timing fiancé did. Everyone campaigned about it - even MP's got into the act.
Soaps don't have just one main character - they have at least three to four different families - that means around twenty to thirty characters. This means they can write out characters if they have run out of ideas for them, or the character has run it's course. Therefore, soaps don't have to and don't usually show just one character.
The good thing about having multiple characters is that the soaps can have the usually array of stereotypes, for example, the good guy, the bad guy, the idiot, the nosey neighbour, and the landlord or landlady. This also means there are always people to relate to- whatever your age.
All these characters are interlinked, the bad guy commits a crime, the nosey neighbour hears about it, the landlord tells everyone, the good guy tries to sort it and the idiot is the last to find out, and usually gets a frown or two.=
Each terrestrial channel on British TV (except for BBC2 for obvious reasons) has at least one soap on in the prime time area (6-10pm) For example: BBC1 has Eastenders, ITV has Coronation Street and Emmerdale, Channel 4 has Brookside and Channel 5 has Family Affairs. This amounts to several hours each week - these soaps are shown more than once a week. Of course, they are not all watchable at the same time due to schedules clashing, but most people watch the biggest ones (Coronation Street, Eastenders, Brookside) which amount to well over 5 hours per week.
Conventions are a very big part of soaps. They are the authentic make-up that tell a program from a soap. If soaps didn't run continuously, they'd just be classified as a drama or serial.
Soaps also have a place in real life. An example of this is how they are depicted in the popular press. For example, papers like the Daily Star and The Sun have regular stories reporting on recent events in the soaps, usually Coronation Street or Eastenders. In January 14th's edition, The Daily Star has a page reporting on the latest happening with the Eastenders bad guy Steve Owen. It's funny how soaps get reports in the press - but it gets readers, people want to know what's happening in Eastenders over the next month.
Soaps have been around for ages and will stay for as long as TV exists. Soaps are a family favourite that everyone can relate to. It will take a monumental disaster to stop people watching Soaps.
By Luke Kyriakdes