Kylie Minogue, who found fame on the show as Charlene Robinson (née Mitchell), tweeted: “We had no idea how big the show would become and how passionately viewers would take it to heart. BBC One’s Holby City was axed after 23 years, while Channel 5 decided to stop broadcasting the 37-year-old Australian soap Neighbours, prompting its production company, Fremantle, to cancel it. While TV viewing as a whole fell by 9% between 20, Coronation Street’s audience fell by 19%, while Emmerdale’s went down by 22% and EastEnders’ by 37%.Īll soaps are ailing, then, but last month two soaps were terminated with a ruthlessness akin to the moment in Coronation Street in 1989 when Rita Fairclough’s nemesis, Alan Bradley, was dispatched by a Blackpool tram. By “streamers”, he means the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime and catchup services such as BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s All 4. As the television ratings expert Stephen Price puts it: “The soaps’ dominance of traditional TV appears to be on the wane, no longer impervious to challenge from the linear opposition and losing fans to the streamers.” By “linear opposition”, he means shows such as Bradley Walsh’s Breaking Dad on ITV and BBC One’s The Repair Shop. Today such a waste of parliamentary time and stomach-churning cameos are scarcely conceivable, and not just because politicians have more important things to worry about. “If you have any ideas how I could help Walford,” Boris oiled at Peggy, “here’s my card.” Not the first time our leader had mistaken fiction for fact. William Hague, the leader of the opposition, told the House of Commons: “The nation is deeply concerned about Deirdre – Conservatives as much as anyone else.” As late as 2009, Barbara Windsor’s Peggy Mitchell pulled a pint for the London mayor – Boris Johnson – after a tyre on his bike was punctured outside the Queen Vic. When, for instance, in Coronation Street in 1998, Deirdre (née Hunt, later Langton, Rachid and Barlow) was jailed for fraud while her conman lover, Jon Lindsay, walked free, the prime minister, Tony Blair, supported the Weatherfield One and promised to intervene. Rather, soaps have lost their place in the national discourse. It’s not just that, for some, soaps have lost the plot.
I know what you’re thinking: Nazi storyline? Mike Baldwin (Johnny Briggs) at the Rovers Return, Coronation Street, in 2000.
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