Yasmin Rufo
Popcorn at the ready… I spent eight hours watching soap operas this week
I have a confession: I’ve never watched a soap opera before.
I’m not sure why, as I regularly binge shows with hundreds of episodes and love drama series. As a teen, I was addicted to programmes such as Waterloo Road and Skins, which, like soaps, followed the lives of a community who found themselves embroiled in increasingly outlandish plot lines.
Despite ratings which are far below their 1980s peak, EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale consistently rank in the top 20 most viewed shows on UK broadcast channels every week.
With EastEnders celebrating its 40th anniversary and ITV cutting back soaps in the schedule, I decided it was time to finally watch a soap opera. I watched a week of EastEnders, Emmerdale, and Coronation Street to see whether there’s a place for them in the lives of Gen Z.
My mum says that in the late 1980s, her university’s student union was packed at lunchtimes as everyone gathered for their daily dose of Australian soap, Neighbours.
Her experience was not too dissimilar from mine, except instead of watching soaps, my friends and I crammed onto the sofa eager to find out who had been behaving badly at Casa Amor or which Bushtucker trial awaited a group of intrepid celebrities.
Sitting down to a watch a soap for the first time, I was unsure what to expect. I had never heard anyone my age talk about them before and navigating to ITVX and having to sit through three minutes of adverts was a very different experience from what I’m used to.
I didn’t want to do too much research into the shows but I did ask my parents, who are soap fans, to give me a bit of an explainer of who’s who.
Yasmin Rufo
My mum helped out with my research by explaining Cindy’s complex backstory
After the opening titles and iconic theme songs that even I had heard of, I was surprised with how quickly the drama started. There was no scene-setting and I was thrust straight into the middle of some passive aggressive arguing in all three shows.
Although the drama gets progressively more absurd, the sheer amount of scheming and fighting that is crammed into such a short episode means I was hooked for most of the show.
But, I also had a lot of questions about how true the shows are to reality.
How is everyone out and about all day? Don’t they have to go to work? Would neighbours really be that aggressive with each other face to face? Realistically, their gripes would play out with passive aggressive messages on the neighbourhood WhatsApp groupHow can people afford to be buying that many drinks in the pub every night? Why does everyone visit the laundrette on a daily basis? Does no one own a washing machine? Why do they all buy a cup of tea at the local cafe when they only live 100 metres away?
Cindy and Ian Beale from EastEnders married in 1989 – how can anyone keep up with all the drama from 36 years of marriage?
Despite being drawn in to the drama, I wasn’t initially invested in the characters.
I’m of the reality TV generation and I couldn’t help thinking, why would I watch a scripted drama when there are shows with ordinary people dealing with dramatic situations?
It feels hard to care about Cindy and Ian Beale’s fractious relationship on EastEnders when I can watch a real couple break up because one of their heads has been turned by a bombshell contestant entering the Love Island villa.
Only last week, a clip from a Spanish reality TV programme showing a man having a meltdown as he watches a clip of his girlfriend cheating on him went viral.
You can’t convince me that watching a man run along a beach howling after learning about his partner’s infidelity doesn’t make for more engaging TV than a couple shouting faux insults at each other in the laundrette.
Competition with high-budget dramas
Not only are soaps competing with reality TV, but they also face fierce competition from dramas produced by streaming services.
“It feels like this was filmed 20 years ago,” my boyfriend says within the first five minutes of watching Coronation Street. Shots are dimly lit, characters stand around in dated kitchens and conversations last a few minutes before flitting to another storyline entirely.
There’s nothing wrong with this per se as it adds an element of gritty reality to the shows, but people are now used to high-budget, high-stake dramas with cinematic visuals and star-studded casts.
Yasmin Rufo
By the end of the week, I was fairly interested to see how Phil’s depression storyline would play out
In just 12 episodes across three soaps there were more plots than I could count – the storylines covered everything from depression to infidelity to knife crime.
In the past, these storylines would have undoubtedly influenced national conversations but for me, it felt like the issues were dealt with heavy-handedly and often felt shoehorned into plotlines.
In comparison to shows such as Sex Education, Euphoria, and Top Boy which resonate with younger audiences by addressing themes like mental health, identity, and social justice in a way that feels authentic and visually compelling, the teenage angst of characters like Betsy and Max in Coronation Street feel unrealistic.
I realise it’s unfair to compare the big-budget streamer hits with soaps. The first season of Euphoria which consisted of just eight episodes reportedly cost $165m (£130m) to produce which is far greater than the budget of soaps.
But, even up against shows such as Made in Chelsea, which likely has a similar budget, soaps still perform poorly with young audiences. Around a quarter of Made in Chelsea’s audience is aged 16 to 34.
I now know who the people in this meme are but I’m still none the wiser on its context
Perhaps I’m being slightly unfair to the soaps. After all, I am jumping in decades after they first aired with no prior knowledge, so naturally it’s harder to build a connection with the characters.
But the longevity of the shows is part of the problem.
I recognised Ian Beale from the meme of him crying “I’ve got nothing left” and I understand the Dingles are one of the most important families in Emmerdale – but I know nothing about their backstories.
There’s only so much empathy I can feel for Phil Mitchell’s suicide attempt when I don’t know the reason why.
‘I plan my week around it’
While I might not have many thoughts about Phil Mitchell, some young people are massive soap enthusiasts.
Natalie Altman, 25, is an EastEnders fanatic. She started watching it a year ago after seeing clips of the show on TikTok and while it was confusing at first to follow the plots, she immersed herself with learning about their backstories on social media. She says the show feels more authentic than reality TV.
“I love it so much I’ve planned my week around the 40th anniversary and even cancelled plans to make sure I can watch it live.”
Despite none of her friends watching the show and thinking she’s a “loser for watching it”, she says she loves the escapism it provides. “I’m quite an anxious person so being stressed about things that aren’t real is really good for me.”
ITV
Emmerdale was originally commissioned for just 26 episodes but its 10,000th episode aired in May 2024
Data suggests the London-based drama has more than double the number of young viewers than Emmerdale.
But, in contrast to Natalie, 25-year-old Ryan says EastEnders is a “bit too doom-and-gloom” and prefers the other two soaps.
“They feel more like real life where there are positive and negative storylines.”
He adds that he doesn’t live in a big city so it’s nice to watch shows such as Emmerdale that reflect rural life and aren’t London-centric.
PA Media
Coronation Street will celebrate its 65th anniversary this year
By the end of the week, I found myself quite enjoying EastEnders more than the other two soaps – which could be partly because I grew up in London and therefore felt more of an inherent connection.
But overall I struggled with the lack of cathartic ending for all of them.
I don’t mind a series having multiple episodes but I have to know that all the storylines will eventually be resolved.
With soaps, there is no ending. Storylines carry on even when you think they’re over. A character reappears years later or someone’s brother’s cousin’s daughter from five years ago starts digging up the drama again.
I’m unlikely to continue watching soaps after this week but I can see the appeal of them for the people who have been watching it for some time.
There’s something impressive about their longevity – will Love Island be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2055 and will I be tuning in as a pensioner to watch a 21-year-old man tell someone their behaviour is muggy? Probably not.
