History of Soap Operas

A soap opera is a long-running, never-ending program of roughly half-an-hour stints, usually more than once a week, that follows the lives of many fictional

characters as they battle their own issues, written to reflect those of real-life,

however events happening in real-life do not impact on the lives of the characters (e.g the current recession), unless it is by coincidence that the writer wants this to

be the case.

The main convention in any soap opera is the verisimilitude reflection of

it to everyday life.

This verisimilitude is used so the soap is believable to the audience and is a form of escape from their own life -especially if the characters are in a

difficult situation, when it comforts the audience into realising their own problems aren’t that bad - or the

characters’ actions help them to deal with their own life.

Once upon a time, instead of being on the TV, soap operas were transmitted

on the radio and were called "dramatic serials".

These dramatic serials were sponsored by various different soap

manufacturers which eventually influenced the change in title to "soap

operas“; a nickname that stuck.

The longest running soap opera on television is Coronation Street with the

show first premiering on the 9th December 1960. Obviously, the much-loved soap opera is still being filmed to

this day.

THENNOW

However, the longest running soap opera ever is The Archers. This soap

opera was first broadcast on the radio in 1950, as a five-part pilot, and now it is still on-going on BBC Radio 4 today.

Originally, soap operas, like The Archers, were broadcast in the middle of the day and aimed at housewives who could listen whilst doing chores.

According to a Digital Spy forum, Corrie's Fiz is the most popular

character, across the soap operas, however it does come down to

personal opinion.

Coronation Street viewers' favourite ever character was Jack Duckworth, as

votes top him in a recent Digital Spy poll (May 2012).

One of Eastenders‘ original characters’, Sharon's, return on August 13th 2012, prompted recent polls to pronounce that she was the viewers' favourite

character.

Eastenders was the most watched soap on Tuesday 28th August 2012 when it had 7.3m viewers to watch

Sharon's decision, suggesting this was also one of the most popular

storylines.