The name ‘soap opera’ comes from the original radio dramas of the early twentieth century, originating from America. Britain’s radio serials made a success, mainly getting its ratings from female listeners. When the serials moved to television, the majority of viewers were female. Brook writes
Because these early daily radio
serials were aimed at a predominantly female audience, they were generally
sponsored by household goods companies, detergents and soap being particularly
prevalent. This sponsorship, attached to the serials' particular style of
heightened emotion and melodrama, led to the label 'soap opera'.
(Brook,
2003-2010, Online)
This name was kept when the dramas moved to television and
the characteristics of the soap remained relatively similar to previous years.
The BBC and ITV public ethos confirmed that the genre needed to evolve with
time and new systems and structures were put in place.
Narrative structures can be seen in
all forms of film and television. Most texts can be analysed in terms of the
‘classic’ narrative, the storytelling, using two elements; the ‘showing’
(mimesis) of the story and the ‘telling’ (diagesis) of the plot. The mimetic
qualities are not linked to time like the narrative but are linked to “forms of
representation” (Holland, 1997, page 121), such as the portrayal of women,
sexuality and adolescence. In soaps the narrative ‘tells’ the story of issues
relevant in contemporary society by showing characters in everyday situations
as in real-life with, ‘real’ friends and ‘real’ family. Sensitive issues are
also looked at; for example the fortnightly magazine Soaplife states that the head of UK Grants, Comic Relief explains
It is vital that we continue to alert
young people to the dangers if we are to stop them being exploited and the
opportunity to work with Eastenders will make a huge audience aware of this
issue. We have been working with scriptwriters and some of the young women from
projects we support to ensure the story reflects the reality of young people
caught up in sexual exploitation.
(Brockway, 2011, page 28)
These issues are sensitive and the writers have to
successfully create a ‘real’ atmosphere for a storyline like this to work and
help to introduce viewers to real-life issues. These ‘classic’ narratives also
need a critical framework to help the narrative ‘flow’. Watching television is
a domestic activity that to a point socialises friends and family. The home has
many distractions - unlike a cinema auditorium, television is just a box in the
corner. Even though it may be on for most of the day, domestic distractions can
disrupt the viewing experience creating “wallpaper TV”. (Jones,
2006, Online)
As television rarely has full
attention of the viewer, television programmes are worked into sections, about
five minutes long, and apart from the BBC this includes advertising, creating a
longer narrative. Storylines in the soap opera are easily picked up and as
Chandler informs
Soaps are unlike traditional dramas
(e.g. sit-coms) which have a beginning, a middle and an end: soaps have no
beginning or end, no structural closure. They do not build up towards an ending
or closure of meaning. Viewers can join a soap at any point. There is no single
narrative line: several stories are woven together over a number of episodes.
In this sense the plots of soaps are not linear.
(Chandler,
1994, online)
They allow for stories to run parallel alongside each other
throughout an episode, switching from character to character. This breaks up
the viewing experience and ensures the viewer is continuously entertained. The
sections in soap are intended to be easy to follow - no deep thinking – just
flowing through as life does, not fast paced as film suggests. The sections are
full of cliff-hangers that make the viewer ‘wait and watch’. Raymond Williams
who named the concept of flow claims that the segments do not mean anything on
their own, so they flow together to build a longer segment, becoming
homogenised, everything resembling everything else (Jones, 2006, Online). These
narrative sections favour domestic issues such as marriage, relationships,
adolescence, rape, prostitution, racism and recently Eastenders’ cot-death. Gottlieb explains that
confrontation of social issues […]
with social reality within the soap format started when the home-produced
British soaps, Coronation Street, 1960- […] were joined by the newcomers […]
EastEnders, 1985 (BBC1).
(Gottlieb, 1993,
page 41)
By providing a platform to understand these issues and find
ways of ‘getting through’ the traumas of everyday life, soaps are therefore
based around mainstream ideology, with restrictions being placed on content due
to the watershed. Television style is different to film in that it is
domesticated and based mainly around sound, not spectacle like the film. This
is due to the distractions in the home, sound drawing the viewer back to the
television, with the noise of conversation, ‘talking heads’. Due to the main
content in soaps being that of conversation, the visuals do not focus on
mise-en-scene, but realism. The narrative should follow the codes of realism.
According to Holland
A television drama should have a surface accuracy, that is an accuracy of costume,
setting and props. […] it should obey the
laws of cause and effect, and explain itself adequately to its audience […] It should conform to expectations based on
psychology and character so that the characters remain consistent even when
'weird' and 'unnatural' events take place.
The fictional world should be governed by spatial and temporal verisimilitude […]
A plot should not stray too far from what
we expect to happen. This means that it should obey the laws of physical
and natural science, unless it is dealing in the supernatural
(Holland, 1997, page 124)
Holland means if someone has an umbrella it must be raining,
if the character is a police officer they wear a real uniform. Characters
should keep consistent personalities and events should not be far-fetched but
true to society. Shots are mainly close ups, two-shots or multi-shots of the
characters conversing. As this technique is not as captivating as film visuals,
the shot reverse shots are quicker in television to keep the viewer
entertained. This style has an effect on the viewer’s emotions as the
characters are people, part of the viewer’s everyday life. With Coronation Street running from 1960 and
still running after fifty years, and Eastenders
also running since 1985, the viewer has been socially conditioned to watch the
soap - particularly women, enabling the viewer to ‘grow up’ with the characters,
which allows for emotive responses, evident in real friendships and
relationships. The storylines are believable and true to society’s issues and
constraints, whereas film can be a little far-fetched, therefore becoming a
spectacle. Television’s realism comes from the characters’ authenticity and the
plausibility of the storylines.
Characters live their life ‘live’ onscreen,
parallel with reality; Valentine’s Day will be Valentine’s Day and Christmas
will be Christmas “central to its nature as a domestic medium” (Jones, 2006,
Online). With recent chart music and news stories mentioned in the soaps, the
viewer feels as though they are watching events unravel onscreen; ’real-life’
stories, not just real-time stories. ITV recently celebrated Coronation Street’s fiftieth birthday by
shooting a one million pound live episode; the viewer literally watching the
actors live out their double life, live. The ‘live’ feeling of the soap opera
is not continuous as the episode would suggest, but the actors move from set to
set, as in film. For example, in film someone knocks at the door, then a cut to
a shot of two people talking on a sofa. In Soap we would see a character knock
at the door then we would see the other side of the door where another
character is opening it. Then we would see the characters walk into the house
and to the sofa. This continuous flow of events, allow us to feel comfortable
in believing that what we are watching is in real-time.
The soap opera undoubtedly does show
a challenging representation in terms of its narrative construction and the
continuous flow of real-time events. Christine Geraghty states “the longer they
run the more impossible it seems to imagine them ending” (Geraghty, 1991, page
11), since they have been a part of British television history for more than
fifty years. With the never-ending serials and the open narrative, gripping
cliff-hangers and continuous parallel storylines, the soap allows one to
immerse themselves in a world that is ‘real’ in the sense that they feel part
of the story sharing the character’s emotions. The viewer feels as though they
have more of an understanding about the issues evident in society.
Bibliography
Brockway, S., (2011) ‘Whitney Hits Rock Bottom’, Soaplife. Issue 243, page 28.
Brook, M., (2003-2010) Soap
Opera. [ONLINE] http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/519828/index.html (Accessed 14/02.2011)
Chandler, D., (1994) ‘The
TV Soap Opera Genre and its Viewers’ [ONLINE] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33120/soaps.html
(Accessed 14/02/2011)
Geraghty, C., (1991) Women
and Soap Opera: A Study of Prime -Time Soaps. Cambridge: Polity Press
Gottlieb, V (1993), 'Brookside: Damon's YTS comes to an end
(Barry Woodward) Paradoxes and contradictions.’ In British Television Drama in the 1980s, Brandt, G, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Page 40-61.
Holland, P. (1997), 'Narrative Television', The Television Handbook. London:
Routledge, page 113-136.
Jones, S., (2006) ‘How
to Teach Narrative’ [ONLINE] http://www.medienabc.org/page5/page23/page29/page29.html
(Accessed 13/02/2011)
Filmography
Eastenders
(1985-2011) BBC. UK: BBC
Coronation Street (1960-2011) ITV. UK: ITV
By Lea Weller BA
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