WHAT on earth has happened to all of our soaps?
Recently, I have been watching old episodes of Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale.
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Like many fellow pop culture enthusiasts, I have participated in the ‘nostalgia boom’, and I utterly loved what I saw.
By doing so, I also realised that the initial premise of all the soaps was to partly reflect the day-to-day lives of people in those respective areas.
Over the years, I believe that all the main soaps have in a way lost sight of their very premise.
Down to earth characters have been replaced by flash in the pan figures.
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Gritty and investible storylines have been replaced by the need for more melodrama.
The streets of Weatherfield and Walford in particular resemble Spanish telenovelas rather than the places they are meant to represent.
With linear viewing on the continued decline, I have been thinking up ways which TV bosses could use to save their soaps.
Coronation Street
Looking back on Coronation Street, some of the best moments I saw were simple rows on the street or in the Rovers.
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I’m not just thinking of Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) and Ena Sharples (Violet Carson) from the 60’s.
I’m also talking Gail (Helen Worth) and Eileen (Sue Cleaver) in the noughties and Tracy’s (Kate Ford) multiple fights in the pub.
The moment that Deirdre (Anne Kirkbride) chucked the trifle at the wall was both high camp and iconic to the core.
Now, the soap is full of outlandish storylines that viewers find almost impossible to invest in.
For example, Roy Cropper (David Neilson) – who would even have trouble hurting a fly – was arrested and wrongly imprisoned.
This was for committing a supposed murder, one where the body was not found and there was only light circumstantial evidence.
Meanwhile, the girl he was supposed to have killed was not only alive and (kind of) well all along, she was carrying the baby of the person who beat her to a pulp.
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All the while one of their neighbours, Leanne Battersby, is getting invested in an internet cult and has now decided to ‘disconnect’ from her sister who is battling ovarian cancer.
And that same sister is secretly having an affair with her sibling’s fiance, who also feels distant from his beloved partner.
Oh and this is as another resident is being targeted with deep fake porn by the father of her son’s killer who starred in a TV documentary.
Did you struggle to keep up? I know I did!
Gail’s biggest Corrie storylines
Over the years the character of Gail Platt has been the centre of several major plots.
Here we take a look back over actress Helen Worth’s biggest storylines:
Teenage daughter’s pregnancy
One of Gail’s most controversial storylines was in 1999.
It came when her 13-year-old daughter Sarah became pregnant.
Multiple marriages
Gail holds the record for the series’ most married female character.
She has been wed a whopping six times, each one worse the last.
Married to a serial killer
One of Gail’s multiple marriages saw her wed Richard Hillman, who turned out to be a serial killer.
At the climax of the storyline, 19 million fans tuned in to watch Hillman drive his wife and her family into a canal.
Scrapping on The Street
Gail has proved over the years she can’t resist a good scrap.
Her most memorable bust-up saw her attack Eileen Grimshaw on the cobbles in 2004 while in her dressing gown.
Jail bird
In 2010, Gail found herself wrongly banged up in jail.
She was wrongfully arrested for murdering her 4th husband Joe McIntyre.
These storylines are so outrageous, so unbelievable in tone and subject, so utterly far fetched, that it’s no wonder that viewers are switching off.
Plot holes are not even hard to find, and viewers have constantly questioned the action they watch.
The days of high drama and underlying tension on the cobbles have turned into a circus of complete farce.
Even the villains are not doing their job properly and that’s because we have so many of them.
The characters of Joel (Calum Lill), Rowan (Emrhys Cooper), and Stefan (Paul Opacic), all have the makings of brilliant soap villains.
Coronation Street fans ‘uncover’ Alina Pop’s child’s mystery father
Instead, they are being let down by surface level writing and are eating into each other’s screen-time.
I wish bosses would pick one villain, let them have the attention and run rampage on the street in a terrifying way that will actually have us gripped.
All the emphasis would be on that one character and viewers would invest in them.
Instead, we are treated to outlandish and meaningless melodrama that only lasts a few months at a time.
However, viewers have praised the recent Motor neurone disease storyline that has engulfed Paul (Peter Ash).
The acting was just brilliant, I want to see more of that please!
EastEnders
I’ve been watching a lot of Angie (Anita Dobson) and Den (Leslie Grantham) in recent days.
Back in the day, these characters were national sensations who were watched by millions.
Viewers were gripped by Angie’s alcohol problem and Den’s affairs, which led to the ‘six months to live’ lie.
One of the most iconic episodes in history was on Christmas 1986 where 30 million people set a new precedent in soapland.
Bosses don’t seem to quite know what to properly do with her…
Joshua Rom
The holiday season would never be the same again after Den presented those divorce papers in the Vic.
We have subtle hints of the show’s esteemed past in today’s version of EastEnders.
Linda Carter (Kellie Bright) gave off Angie Watts vibes with her own drinking problem and viewers were utterly hooked by the year long storyline of ‘The Six’.
But with a huge buildup comes another problem … what’s next?
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It seems that these characters have been in a state of hazed limbo, not knowing what to do with themselves since the new-year.
This could have been (and still could be) a game-changing storyline, I just hope that bosses properly thought up a two or three year plan for this.
For a while, Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) was the only original character left on the soap (think back to Who Killed Lucy Beale).
Thank goodness bosses found a way for Kathy to return and of course Sharon’s been back for a long time.
Letitia Dean is simply iconic as Sharon Watts. Her worrying over Linda also gives us more hints to her troubled past.
‘Get rid of him!’ rage EastEnders fans as they slam ‘awful’ character for ‘ruining show’
She is THE East End OG, but again bosses don’t seem to quite know what to properly do with her.
We will soon have the return of other legendary characters as David Wicks (Michael French) and Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman).
I hope soap bosses give us meaty interactions, past tensions coming to the surface and heated confrontations.
The BBC One show desperately needs it, I know I am not the only one tired of seeing the pathetic troubles of the long-suffering Sonia (Natalie Cassidy).
Linda Carter’s biggest EastEnders storylines
Linda arrived on the Square on Boxing Day in 2013, along with her husband Mick (Danny Dyer) and has been a hit with soap fans ever since.
Her first storylines revolved around the fact that she struggled to come to terms that her son Johnny is gay
In a storyline that had long-lasting repercussions, she was then raped by Mick’s brother Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo).
She fell pregnant shortly after and then was left devastated emotionally when she gave birth to a premature baby after falling down the stairs.
Things soon got worse for Linda after she discovered that her husband Mick kissed their daughter-in-law Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), who was married to their veteran son Lee (Danny Hatchard).
One of her more memorable storylines was when she was accused of perverting the course of justice. This was after Stuart Highway (Ricky Champ) is shot and she was falsely accused of attempted murder.
Over the years she has suffered from a variety of illnesses and disorders which include bulimia, alcoholism, and a secret battle with cervical cancer. After she gave birth to her youngest son Ollie (Harry Farr), she also had to deal with his autism diagnosis.
Although she and Mick seemed to be the perfect couple, the pair split up for a short time after she had an affair with Max Branning (Jake Wood). This lead to another pregnancy.
However, the pair finally got divorced after Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) set her eyes on Mick. She wanted the landlord all to herself and she lured Linda rival back into alcoholism to drive a wedge between them.
After this led to Mick’s apparent death at sea, she struggled to adjust to life without her ex-husband and the true love of her life. This was just after the pair decided to have another go at their relationship.
Recently, Linda was the person who was at the very centre during ‘The Six’ storyline. She tried to save her best friend Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) when she was being strangled by Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters). When she killed him with a meat thermometer, the group framed her rapist Dead Wicks after he returned to the square. Since then, she has struggled to cope.
We have had Sonia fall head over heels for a fraud accountant running a pathetic ponzi scheme, as he attempted to fund IVF treatment, all while caring for his Joan Crawford lookalike glamorous comatose wife.
Reiss Colwell (Jonny Freeman) has obvious red flags, such as lying that Sonia is his landlady, she barely bats an eyelid, even though she is actually supposed to be a smart woman.
Like Corrie, bosses need to weed out the outlandish melodrama and focus on bringing back the real grit.
Emmerdale
Emmerdale at the moment might just be the best of the bunch.
At first it aired as a ‘sleepy’ 70’s lunchtime serial that was meant to focus on farming.
Over the years, it has slowly developed into a full on dramatic soap opera with its own loyal fanbase.
Tom King and Belle Dingle’s coercive control storyline is just sensational viewing, as it is simple and effective.
I hope bosses explore the proper history of Emmerdale
But I also think like its other ITV counterpart, returning to the early roots would not be a bad thing.
The first instalments were heavily focussed on the Sugden family, but over the years their numbers have depleted completely into a whimper.
Ater focus shifting to the likes of the Tate’s and the Dingles, bosses have promised that they will finally give the dynasty some much-needed attention.
This has come in the form of John Sugden (Clive Hornby), who is revealed to be Jack and Barbara’s son.
He started off well, having had sex with Aaron (Danny Miller), but it needs to continue that way.
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- Find all Emmerdale spoilers here
I hope bosses explore the proper history of his character and delve into some of the implied secrets of the soap.
Otherwise it would just be a wasted opportunity and would feel like a token gesture of nostalgia for the sake of it.
Emmerdale and Coronation Street are available to watch on ITV1 and ITVX.
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EastEnders is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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