Hello all! I'm not sure if there's been a blog post about this topic before, but here we go. Apart from Coronation Street, are there any other soaps you watch? Or you used to watch them?
Personally, I'm an avid fan of both Corrie and Neighbours. I've followed Neighbours since 2008, although I used to watch some episodes when it was on the BBC, but since it changed to Five, and the storyline involving Harold Bishop's exit, I've been a big fan. And maybe it was because I'd just finished my GCSE's and it was something to watch during the summer months! I think both soaps are similar - street based, a mix of drama and humour and great characters. Only that Neighbours has more sun! Neighbours doesn't have a strong number of viewers here in the UK compared to Corrie, but I do think it's an excellent show. For some, the golden age of Neighbours is long gone, but it must be doing something right, or I wouldn't be watching.
With the other soaps, I watch them if there's a big storyline or a legendary character leaves. Hollyoaks doesn't appeal to me, nor Doctors. And I'm too young to remember Dallas, Dynasty and Crossroads. I do however have a fond childhood memory of my parents letting me watch Brookside with my nain (Welsh for grandmother) during the holidays, because it was rather late if I remember, about 10-11. Loved the theme tune and the credits over Liverpool. As I'm from Wales, I watch youth based soap Rownd a Rownd (which is based on a paper round) and I used to be a regular viewer of Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley), but sadly, for me, it's gone pretty dire. If you think Corrie has its low moments, you haven't watched Pobol y Cwm!
So what about you? Eastenders, Emmerdale or Neighbours fans? Crossroads? Emergency Ward Ten? Take the High Road? Or classy Dynasty and Dallas? Or did you ever watch Albion Market or Eldorado? Or, if you only watch Corrie, tell us what makes it triumph over other soaps? Just leave a comment!
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17 comments:
*Are* there any other soaps???? ;))
I have watched The Show That Shall Not Be Mentioned on and off in the past but haven't for a long time. When i do watch the occasional episode i wonder why i did. As i'm in Canada, we don't get many other British shops though i think Emmerdale has played her. I never got into that.
I did used to watch Dallas back in the day and i watch a couple of the American soaps. I've watched quite a few of them over the years since i was a kid. CBC even tried a Canadian soap once, called Riverdale which was absolutely awful. We joked about it and called it "Driveldale"
Corrie is still my favourite of them all.
We watch Emmerdale which strangely seems to do similar plots as Corrie, perhaps because Sally Dvenor's husband is a writer there!
I am in the US and I have been watching Corrie for years. (Thank you Canada). I too have watched the American soaps. Daytime and nighttime styles. Recently they have canceled most of the daytime soaps after very long runs on TV. I love the fact that Corrie isn't a "glitzy" soap. Just regular people doing regular things. I've even gotten my husband into watching. He thinks because it's from the UK his friends won't know it's a soap. Corrie is must see TV in this house!
Avid Pobol y Cwm fan! It's the one thing that I have to watch every night, and yes it really does have it's low points but even they are brilliant in their own way!
As a child, I watched Neighbours, Hollyoaks and EE in the UK. I stopped watching Neighbours in May 2000 after Billy Kennedy left, and as I knew that I was moving to Canada (and had no idea if I would ever be able to watch the show the again!), I decided to wean myself off it. I did manage to catch a couple of episodes in 2000 here in Canada, but as they were episodes I had seen before, I didn't continue to watch it. I have to say over a decade later, my life isn't worse off without it! I have to say I don't miss Hollyoaks and probably wouldn't recognise any character now.
I have absolutely no idea where EE is in Canada but I remember when it was on BBCCanada it was so painfully slow that I couldn't watch it. Is it two episodes that PBS show? It's no time at all to be watching.
So I stick with Coronation Street, because there's always something going on to keep me entertained!
I too am in Canada, but originally from the UK, where I started watching Coronation Street when it first started in 1960. It is still the best as far as I am concerned, and think of it as a serial drama rather than a soap.
I also watch, and love Emmerdale. They have taken it off over here, but where there's a will there's a way, but missed a few years while trying to find that way.
Occasionally by accident I have watched the American 'The Bold and the Beautiful' as I watch the show before it, and I can't believe how slowly it moves. You can tune in weeks later and they are still discussing the same subject, unbelievably boring!
I also watch EastEnders, but I have no idea why - I really don't enjoy it, but for some reason I keep thinking it might get better.
I really don't think Corrie has to be concerned about any of the competition.
As much as I love Corrie, it was always Brookside for me. I'd give my right arm for that programme to come back. I cried when it finished.
Coronation Street is the only one I watch. Never watched soaps, even Dallas! I got turned on to Corrie by a woman I worked with in 1988. For the first year I could hardly understand a word (I also am Canadian) until my ear adjusted, but I did like the characters. Have glanced at EE and Emmerdale, and even Driveldale (ha, ha, Tvor, although I do love Jayne Eastwood), but none of them grabbed me like Corrie. Corrie also brought out my love for British drama. I spent many years and dollars renting VHS of Frost, old Corrie, Taggart, Rebus, Foyle's War, etc., etc., along with UK movies.
Crikey, I'm so old I remember British tv soaps in the 50's: the Grove family (probably the first soap), the Appleyards (a soap for children, light years away from Hollyoaks). Then Compact and Emergency Ward 10. I was an avid Archers fan (radio 4) until my hearing let me down. I've dabbled in most of the soaps mentioned but didn't find them that gripping. Corrie works because of its humour (often funnier than sitcoms)and characters - all the things we mention on this blog.
Emmerdale i watch i quite like it :) and EastEnders - Seems a bit doom and gloom at the Min. Corrie all the way though then Emmerdale ;)
I'm American and was a hard core Days of our Lives fan starting in the 60s. I watched with my mom when I was little, after school when I was older, bought a VCR when I had a job, read the magazines and the inter webs. My father would cringe when we mentioned Stephano Dimera at the dinner table. Then one Sunday morning, the CBC (thank you, Canada!) had this show about a normal little street. There was a crazy red haired guy and his brassy wife, an older man who read books, a loud bald guy who repeated himself. A nice lady whose daughter was a teen mom. And a pub. Couldn't understand half of what they were saying, but I was hooked and haven't been back to Salem since.
Was a fan of Dallas, Dynasty, 90210 and Falcon Crest, but not Knotts Landing. Even watched the Sopranos for the soapy bits. If Downton Abbey counts, that's my new prime time fix.
I have watched corrie since 1980 when i lived in UK, i saw hilda ogden and was hooked. i loved the golden era of corrie but still love it today as much as i did back then. i now live in australia and apart from corrie i also watch Eastenders (which is currently showing 8 eps a week) i don't enjoy eastenders as much. i get to the point where i think i am going to stop watching and then something interesting happens. i don't watch any other current soaps but used to watch dallas with my mum. i also used to sneak home from school to watch neighbours when it first started. i haven't watched it since around 1993. proud to say i have never watched a single episode of emmerdale, hollyoaks or home and away. i used to watch All Saints (an australian hospital soap) I was also a big fan of Prisoner Cell Block H when it was repeated several years later.
I've watched Corrie since 2004, when I was living in London. Growing up in the US, I avoided American soap operas, which I find boring, slow-paced and poorly acted. You can see how Corrie was a revelation!
I've seen EE on occasion, largely because it will be shown on PBS in the US sometimes. I never really enjoy it - I mainly watch because I'm homesick for London! In Uni I was a Neighbours fan, but stopped watching after that big plane crash killed half the street.
Dallas is being remade and I feel an obligation to watch it, as I grew up about two towns over from where Southfork Ranch is. Could never get in to the old episodes - but they were repeats by the time I was old enough to understand what was going on!
I used to watch Neighbours religiously, but now I'm often not home when it's on - either driving home or at the gym. I don't watch Eastenders as it's so depressing.
My guilty pleasures are of course Corrie which I have watched for 30 years, Emmerdale(on line)and Eastenders.
My husband hates my U.K. soaps but we both really enjoy many English dramas and police shows like Touch of Frost, New Tricks, Foyles War,
Heartbeat and Landgirls.
yay brookside
Mike Clark
(or as his acting name is Mike Starkey) he lives down my street but NEVER call him Sinbad he hates that!
'80s Brookside was great. I also watched Albion Market! Not that good at first, I still liked the characters. The revamp for the final thirty or so episodes saw it becoming very intriguing, but by that time many ITV companies had given it naff time slots and ITV were not patient, so off it came.
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