Television soap operas are long-running serials concerned with everyday life. The serial is not to be confused with the series, in which the main characters and format remain the same from programme to programme but each episode is a self-contained plot. In a serial at least one storyline is carried over from one episode to the next. A series is advertised as having a specific number of episodes, but serials are potentially endless.
History
'Soap opera' is a phrase first coined in the 1930s in the USA. It was used to describe radio series that were sponsored by the manufacturers of soap powder; hence 'soap'. The 'opera' part came from the fact that they were about dilemmas and other dramatic or melodramatic situations.
By the 1950s, these serials had made the transition to TV. They spread across the world and grew and grew in popularity.
Coronation Street is the longest running TV soap in the world.
but it is predated by a radio soap, The Archers, a rural soap opera broadcast on BBC Radio 4. After the successes of glossier productions such as Dallas in America, soap suddenly became more popular again in the 1980s. This caused the inception of new British soaps such as Brookside and EastEnders. Also, the success of Australian soaps like Neighbours and Home and Away caused British soaps to reconsider their target audience and, therefore, their characters. These Australian soaps tended to be aimed at teenage viewers with characters and plots suitable for that age. British producers decided to follow suit, for example, the British soap Hollyoaks is aimed primarily at young people. This change in the target audience proved to be a very shrewd move and, consequently, soaps are now more popular than ever.
British Soap Operas
- Coronation Street
- EastEnders
- Emmerdale
- Hollyoaks
- Doctors
- Neighbours
- Home & Away
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